WRI Insights

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) is the most ambitious climate finance fund thus far, with a goal of completely transforming sectors and economies toward low-emission, climate-resilient development. Last week marked a key moment for climate finance: The last foundations were laid for the GFC, and it’s now ready to receive funding.

Using Aqueduct data, participants in a recent workshop in Trifinio, Guatemala developed scenarios for decision-makers to manage water and adapt to climate change.

The New York Declaration on Forests issued at the UN Climate Summit last month includes a global pledge to restore 350 million hectares of deforested and degraded landscapes by 2030. Several countries confirmed their commitment to restore millions of hectares of degraded land, with Ethiopia making one of the most significant pledges—setting a target to restore 15 million hectares of degraded and deforested land into productivity by 2025.

How should countries decide what to put into their national emissions reduction plans, and how should they be evaluated? What should governments, civil society, and the private sector take into account in thinking about the equitability of a country’s actions? WRI’s new online tool, the [CAIT Equity Explorer](http://cait.wri.org/equity/), aims to help answer these questions.

*What if an international climate change agreement could set the rules for years to come, driving greater emissions reductions, more renewable energy and energy efficiency and a shift away from fossil fuel?* A consortium of research organizations, ACT 2015, has been thinking hard about what structure, processes and rules would need to be put in place to create confidence and predictability of action under this agreement.

Later this week, the European Council will decide on a target to further reduce the EU’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030. At issue is whether the Council will decide to reduce emissions by “at least 40 percent” from 1990 levels—leaving the door open to increase ambition in negotiation with other countries—or cap reductions at just 40 percent, locking in a lower goal and possibly influencing other countries to do the same.

As more businesses take action on climate change, new research could help accelerate the trend by showing why it’s in U.S. companies’ economic best interests.

World Food Day is a day to take a close look at our global food system and see what's working, what's not, and what needs to change. Much of the emphasis around feeding the world tends to focus around [increasing food production](http://www.wri.org/blog/2013/05/great-balancing-act-3-needs-sustainable-food-future). But just as important—and often left out of the conversation—is how we treat what’s already been produced.

Local communities are key to protecting the world’s last remaining forests. Indigenous peoples hold legal or official rights to one-eighth of the world’s forests, [about 513 million hectares](http://www.rightsandresources.org/publication/what-future-for-reform/) (1.3 billion acres). Read more about how researchers used Global Forest Watch maps to identify lower rates of deforestation where governments protect communities’ rights.

America’s smartest business leaders are pursuing a strategy unheard of a few short years ago: they are building economic growth while tackling climate change at its source.