Insights: WRI's Blog

"If you want to change the world, it’s not a little bit like Archimedes said: ‘Give me a lever and I can tilt the world,’” says Paul Polman, chair of the Food and Land Use Coalition (FOLU). “Here you need a few levers to tilt the food system.” Polman and FOLU's Ed Davey explain how those levers can work, following a high-level meeting organized by WRI and WWF and attended by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.

Historically, cities have upgraded poor neighborhoods by razing and reconstructing them, often displacing residents. But to actually improve affordable housing and give residents access to services and opportunities, cities need a different approach.

One of the great challenges of the 21st century is how to nutritiously feed nearly 10 billion people by 2050. One key is reducing food loss and waste at a large scale. Here are 10 interventions that can help in this critical effort.

Water-related risk is a growing economic threat. The private sector has a unique opportunity to shift corporate culture toward more sustainable practices that will spur long-term solutions to systemic water problems.

WRI Water Program Director Betsy Otto knows the world should be worried about water: Her team's research showed this year that one-quarter of the world's population lives in extreme water stress. In this conversation, though, she talks about the solutions—technological, political, and managerial—that can alleviate the strain.

This week began with the Trump administration formally withdrawing from the Paris Agreement. But amidst the gloom, signs of hope: corporate leaders with the CEO Climate Dialogue went to Capitol Hill to urge Congress to enact legislation aligned with the Paris goals.

Rainy season arrives at the same time in the lowlands of central Uganda and the country’s eastern highlands. Both regions grow coffee. Yet the climate risks Uganda's coffee farmers face vary considerably depending on where they're located.

Forests help stabilize the climate and generate income, food and energy. We have plenty of evidence about what works to conserve and restore them. So why haven’t such measures been adopted at scale?

Los Angeles Air Force Base, the first federal facility with a plug-in electric fleet of vehicles on the ground, has gone a step further. Now these EVs are the first in California to provide vehicle-to-grid services, with batteries that can send energy back to the grid, enabling cleaner, more efficient, more reliable power.

Zero carbon buildings aren't a thing of the future. They're viable and affordable right now, and present a massive opportunity to fight climate change cheaply.