The challenge for 2024 is to understand how we can move those in power to make the necessary shifts toward a net zero, climate-resilient future.

In WRI’s Stories to Watch 2024, WRI President & CEO Ani Dasgupta presents four key stories that help explain how we can make these shifts. Each story hinges on whether leaders use their power to make life better for people, nature and the climate — and the factors that influence them.

Our four stories look at the political barriers to effective climate action, how to fix the world’s dysfunctional food system, the missing link in the clean energy revolution and climate change’s "silent killer."

1) Climate: Adapting Politics to 1.5ºC

With more than half the planet voting in elections in 2024, how will domestic politics shape global climate action?

2) Food: Reforming What Feeds Us

How can we realize the enormous potential of the food and land system in tackling climate change?

3) The Grid: Leadership for Critical Infrastructure

What needs to be done with electricity grids to unleash the renewable revolution?

4) Heat: Tackling the Silent Killer

How do we address heat, the silent killer of climate change?

Image by Hasnoor Hussain/Reuters