WRI Insights

Despite difficult negotiations in Lima, discussions signaled the positive outlook among development banks for expanding climate finance in Latin America and the Caribbean. With increasing low-carbon investments, pledges to the Green Climate Fund, and ambitious renewable energy and efficiency targets demonstrate robust political and financial commitments, building momentum for a strong global response to climate change.

Last month India pledged to increase national solar generation capacity to 100 gigawatts (GW) by 2022, but connecting solar projects to the country’s grid has been difficult in the past and could limit progress toward the new goal. Fortunately, an innovative decision by the Indian state of Karnataka may show how to solve the problem.

Lawrence McDonald, Director of Communications at WRI, shares his COP20 Lima experience.

A new WRI working paper finds that reducing flooding in rice paddies can dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and can also help conserve water and boost yields.

A new WRI fact sheet, [*Behind-the-Meter Solar PV: Understanding Cost Parity*](http://www.wri.org/publication/behind-the-meter-solar-pv), aims to help decision-makers, policy experts, investors, and regulators make these comparisons accurately so they can understand where they can save money using solar PV.

The restoration of China's Loess Plateau is unmatched in scale, yet the allure of non-native species to engineer a desired outcome in the landscape is common globally. With changing climate and increasing populations, we need to restore landscapes to ensure the resilience of ecosystem services in the 21st century recognizing that cultural diversity is as important as biodiversity in restoration decisions.

After two weeks of difficult negotiations and a nail-biting finale, delegates in Lima laid the groundwork for a successful international climate agreement in Paris next year.

Peru was recently awarded €9 million ($11.14 million) for its urban transport Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMA) by the German and British NAMA facility. This climate finance award will allow the Peruvian government to leverage $50 million from development aid agencies—especially KfW, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and CAF Development Bank of Latin America—and much more from the private sector.

The International Development Finance Club (IDFC)—a group of international, national, and regional development banks based in the developed and the developing world—released its annual report on green investment (i.e. mitigation, adaptation and ‘other’ environmental finance which includes environmental protection and remediation related projects)—as the world’s climate negotiators were meeting in Lima, and its numbers are significant.

As the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) moves forward with standards to reduce emissions from existing power plants—which are due to be finalized in June 2015—many states are wondering how they will comply. WRI’s fact sheet series, Power Sector Opportunities for Reducing Carbon Dioxide Emissions, examines the policies and pathways various states can use to cost-effectively meet or even exceed future power plant emissions standards. This post explores these opportunities in Virginia. Read about additional analyses in this series.