WRI Insights

Rapidly declining natural systems are bad news for business. There is a two-way street between the economy and the environment: Businesses damage the environment, and the damaged environment then creates risks to the bottom lines of businesses. Three reasons explain why investors should include [sustainability](http://www.theguardian.com/guardian-professional/sustainability) considerations in their decisions, and why doing so is compatible with fiduciary responsibility.

Officials meeting in Songdo, Korea have had intense discussions on the Green Climate Fund (GCF), which will become the main vehicle for securing and delivering money to help developing nations mitigate and adapt to climate change. WRI offers 5 do’s and don’ts to help Green Climate Fund members create policies that can mobilize the level of finance needed to address the future of climate finance and international climate action.

In India, Tamil Nadu Electricity Governance Initiative (TEGI)—a network of consumer and civil society groups—has been using the [Electricity Governance Initiative’s](http://electricitygovernance.wri.org/projects) new tool, [*10 Questions to Ask About Integrated Resources Planning*](http://www.wri.org/publication/10-questions-integrated-resource-planning), to evaluate the state’s current planning approach and understand how it can be improved. This tool was designed to help make decision-making processes more transparent and enable greater engagement in the electricity sector. To date, TEGI’s work provides a good example of how this tool can be used to start putting Integrated Resources Planning (IRP) principles into practice.

The Green Climate Fund is holding its 7th Board meeting in Songdo, Korea this week. One of the most difficult questions that the GCF Board will grapple with is how entities will become “accredited” to receive GCF funds to help developing countries mitigate and adapt to climate change.

When the IPCC released its [Fifth Assessment Report](http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/) earlier this spring, its message was clear: We must do much more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to [keep below 2 °C and limit climate change’s impacts](http://www.wri.org/blog/visualizing-global-carbon-budget). By presenting the current science, impacts, and options for addressing climate change, the IPCC has laid the groundwork for governments and the private sector to start taking more ambitious action. The next step for companies is to [align their own plans](http://www.wri.org/blog/2013/11/greater-expectations-3-actions-companies-take-climate-policy) with larger climate goals.

While investment from more developed countries has remained about the same in recent years, China’s flows to Africa have increased significantly, fueling excitement about development and concern about the effects on the environment and communities. As China’s impact increases, it can take steps now to make sure it sets a new standard for responsible lending and investment in Africa.

To make informed choices on something as complex as climate change policy, it’s important to incorporate scientific evidence into the decision-making process. Yet oftentimes scientific assessments do not reach decision-makers, making it difficult to develop evidenced-based policies that lead to effective action.

New WRI analysis finds that Tennessee can reduce its CO2 emissions 22 percent below 2011 levels by 2020 just by taking advantage of existing infrastructure opportunities.

Andrew Steer's recent travels resonated a common narrative: our current, high-carbon path is not only bad for our planet—it’s bad economics, too. He also witnessed how, at three levels—political, analytical, and practical—global momentum is building for a low-carbon future.

The “resource curse" describes the paradox where countries rich in oil, gas, and minerals remain largely impoverished. Better transparency—both in how governments spend extractive revenues and how natural resource decisions are made—could help tackle this problem. While some new initiatives are making progress on this front, more needs to be done to ensure that drilling and mining doesn’t come at the expense of communities and the land, water, and wildlife they rely on.