Insights: WRI's Blog

Lessons from the Great Recession show three principles that should help the United States in its economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Investing in direct air capture research can help remove carbon from the atmosphere and prevent the worst impacts of climate change.

The American Energy Innovation Act might become the first major energy bill from the U.S. Congress in over a decade. The bill is not comprehensive climate change legislation, but it could provide incremental progress on clean energy and emissions reduction.

To prevent the most dangerous impacts of climate change, greenhouse gas emissions will have to reach net zero by 2050. That will require both deep cuts in emissions and the removal of remaining emissions directly from the atmosphere. Making that happen will take concerted U.S. innovation akin to a moonshot. In this case, it's a CarbonShot.

Advocates of climate finance in Congress have spent the last three years on the defensive, working to maintain current levels of spending. But a rapid scale up of investment in climate action is urgently needed, and public finance plays a key role.

American cities, states and businesses have already come a long way on the road to cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Here are four clean energy trends to watch in the coming year in cities in the U.S.

Fifteen states now have official targets to get at least 50% of their electricity from clean sources. These states represent 28% of U.S. electric power demand, up from just 17% last year.

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.

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.

September brought alarming signs of a changing climate, including record-breaking hurricanes and reports on rapid loss of snow and ice, a steep decline in U.S. bird species and risks to wheat crops.