WRI Insights

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.

A recent UN report highlights the need to examine the role of development finance institutions in sustainable development, but it leaves open the question of whether member states should call for a review process. Here’s a perspective on some of the outstanding negotiation challenges.

Leaders at COP20 can explore a range of sources for financing low-carbon urban development including multilateral investment banks, private investors, and innovative initiatives like the Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions or climate-themed bonds.

As two of the 10 largest economies in the world, China and Brazil both face significant challenges from degraded lands. A new long-term cooperation aims to learn from each others' experiences in landscape restoration.

What is an equitable way of taking action in the context of growing emissions and climate impacts, from water scarcity and depressed agricultural yields to severe weather events? And how can we reduce emissions and build climate resilience while taking into account varying human development needs?

Adaptation finance accountability is key to addressing obligations of national governments and international organizations to provide support, but actual funding decisions are often made without involving the populations hit first and worst by climate change, or without understanding how communities are vulnerable. So who is accountable for making good use of adaptation funds, and who should hold whom accountable?

A new collaboration between WRI and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture lets users of [Global Forest Watch](http://www.wri.org/our-work/project/global-forest-watch) visualize and analyze tree cover loss alerts for all of Latin America with a near-real time deforestation monitoring system called Terra-i.

In a blog post originally published for National Geographic, Manish Bapna discusses India's low carbon future.

Today, WRI, the [C40](http://c40.org/) Cities Climate Leadership Group, and [ICLEI](http://www.iclei.org/) – Local Governments for Sustainability are launching the final version of [the Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventories (GPC)](http://www.ghgprotocol.org/greenhouse-gas-protocol-accounting-reporting-standard-cities). It’s the first internationally accepted standard for measuring emissions at the city level, and empowers cities to accurately identify where their emissions are coming from, set credible and achievable reduction targets, and consistently track progress.