WRI Insights

The just concluded [U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit](http://www.whitehouse.gov/us-africa-leaders-summit) focused attention on Africa’s promises and challenges, including energy, agriculture and the [$14 billion in investment pledged by companies](http://www.voanews.com/content/obama-to-announce-14-billion-dollars-in-us-corporate-investments-in-africa/1971790.html). The visiting heads of state—just shy of 50—also discussed [climate change](http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/us_africa_leaders_summit_schedule_8.pdf) and its effects on crop production, nutrition and food security. New research by the World Resources Institute and Rights and Resources Initiative on the climate dividends of secure community land rights can help Africa address these challenges.

The solution to improving food security and resilience in Africa is no secret: all sectors need to work together to scale up climate-smart agriculture. What's needed now is political will to make that happen.

After 17 months of debate, the UN Open Working Group has proposed a set of Sustainable Development Goals to succeed the Millennium Development Goals, which expire next year. These goals focus on eradicating extreme poverty by 2030. How do these newly proposed goals square with this ambitious aim?

The more cars on the road, the more challenges a city faces. Developing countries like Mexico have experienced increased car ownership in recent years, as much as 23 percent annually since 1995.

Community land lies at the heart of rural life in Africa, so losing community rights to land can undermine livelihoods and trigger conflict. Most governments recognize customary tenure arrangements that establish communities' rights to land and natural resources, but few governments have the strong legislation needed to help communities protect the land they depend upon. A new video explains.

Trees have become an iconic image of environmentalism, but that doesn't necessarily mean we should plant millions of them. While scale is important for landscape restoration, we need to reconsider quality and not just quantity. When does the presence of a tree really make a difference, and when is it neither an environmental or economical solution to a host of [complex issues](http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wri.org%2Fblog%2F2013%2F12%2Fwhat-does-it-take-successful-forest-landscape-restoration&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNF-ww747vU4resNb0HIPX5KDCI3nw)? What are the implications for food security, biodiversity and landscape protection?

Recent [reports](http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/) from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) revealed that the impacts of climate change are already “[widespread and consequential](http://www.wri.org/blog/2014/03/4-takeaways-ipcc-report-reveal-worsening-impacts-climate-change).” Yet the effects we may see in the future [still largely depend](http://www.wri.org/blog/2014/04/analyzing-ipcc-report-6-things-you-need-know-about-reducing-emissions) on the actions countries take to reduce their emissions today. Our new [infographic](http://www.wri.org/ipcc-infographics-emissions), based on IPCC data, depicts the likely consequences of various emissions pathways ranging from a low-carbon future to a fossil fuel-intensive one.

The World Resources Institute’s Sustainability Initiative seeks to align the Institute’s business practices with its mission. Walking the talk on sustainability, a new [report](http://www.wri.org/2012-greenhouse-gas-inventory-sustainability-report) discloses our 2012 GHG inventory results and discusses GHG reduction projects and other sustainability projects completed in the last year.

Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the IMF, recently launched the latest book in a series on what good fiscal policy should look like in a world of environmental externalities. The message was clear: Ministers of finance and economics should design their tax systems skillfully so as to tax bad things, like pollution and congestion, rather than good things like work and profit. Not to do so is plain, bad economics.

A U.N. working group of 70 member states [recently adopted](http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/focussdgs.html) a proposed set of [Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)](http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300) to succeed the U.N.’s [Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)](http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/) set to expire in 2015. The “post-2015” SDGs will aim to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030 [while also supporting](http://www.wri.org/blog/2013/09/global-efforts-tackle-poverty-and-climate-change-must-come-together) inclusive economic development and environmental sustainability. While the proposal puts forward a plethora of targets for the international community to pursue between 2015 and 2030, it leaves out a critical component of improving rural livelihoods—securing community land rights.