WRI Insights

Investors worldwide spent less on renewable energy and related technologies last year than in previous years, making it appear as if the cleantech sector is on the decline. Taking a deeper dive tells a more complex story—in reality, renewable energy is on a strong growth path—and tools are emerging to push the sector even further.

Globally, we are learning lessons on how to close the climate finance gap by tapping into the private sector’s vast resources. In a recent WRI working paper, [*Unlocking Private Climate Investment: Focus on OPIC and Ex-Im Bank’s Use of Financial Instruments*](http://www.wri.org/publication/unlocking-private-climate-investment-focus-on-opic-and-ex-im-bank), research reveals that through smart and innovative financial tools, public institutions can play a key role in shifting private capital away from business-as-usual investments and into climate-friendly ones.

As coastal communities across the United States continue to fall victim to drought, coastal flooding, and other impacts of extreme weather and climate change, leaders at the metropolitan and federal levels are beginning to take action. Yet, Congressional action is an essential but missing piece to comprehensively addressing climate change. However, Florida's continuing sea-level rise vulnerability suggests Congress may shift its attention to climate impacts.

While some companies are stepping forward on climate change policy, many others have remained quiet. WRI worked with the UN and several esteemed partners on a [Caring for Climate](http://caringforclimate.org/) report to create a common standard for engaging corporate responsibly in [climate policy debates](http://www.wri.org/publication/guide-responsible-corporate-engagement-climate-policy). The guide represents a baseline for action and transparent reporting.

Regional water concerns are creating significant financial risks due to advanced global commodity trading and energy industries’ high dependence on water. Our Aqueduct project explores how water risks are already impacting the world’s coal industry, and how risks will change over time.

*Years of Living Dangerously*, a new Showtime series about climate change, turned its lens on how drought devastated the small town of Plainview, Texas [in its first episode](http://yearsoflivingdangerously.com/where-to-watch/). In Plainview—and every other drought-stricken place across the United States—a precipitous drop in rainfall is only part of a much broader story. Underlying water stress is one important piece of that complicated puzzle. When drought strikes where baseline water stress is high, it exacerbates regions’ water woes.

The [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC)](https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/) newest installment, [Working Group III (WGIII): Mitigation and Climate Change](https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg3/), highlights an important message: It’s still possible to [limit average global temperature rise to 2°C](http://www.wri.org/ipcc-infographics)—but only if the world rapidly reduces emissions and changes its current energy mix. We've outlined six things you need to know about the level of emissions reductions needed to rein in runaway warming.

Transformation is a word we use so often in our daily lives that it seems strange to stop and think about what it really means. But in adaptation circles, the definition and role of transformation has recently become a hot topic of conversation, in part because transformational change was an [important theme](http://www.wri.org/blog/key-points-climate-adaptation-new-ipcc-report) of the recent [IPCC Fifth Assessment Report, Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability](http://ipcc-wg2.gov/AR5/report/final-drafts/).

The World Bank consistently makes the link between poverty elimination and the need to curb climate change. Yet a [WRI analysis](http://www.wri.org/publication/designed-future) shows that of the investments the World Bank financed between 2012 and 2013, only [one-quarter](http://www.wri.org/blog/injecting-urgency-world-banks-climate-change-efforts) addressed climate change risks. Dr. Karin Kemper, director of climate policy and finance in the World Bank Group’s (WBG) Climate Group, shares the Bank's current and future plans to more fully incorporate climate change mitigation and adaptation into its international development agenda.

Well-designed cities can generate jobs, innovation, and economic growth for all. But when designed poorly—with too much sprawl, waste, and inefficiency—they can divide urban centers and exacerbate pollution, inequality, and political instability. Against this backdrop, some 25,000 people have gathered in Medellin, Colombia, for the UN Habitat’s [World Urban Forum](http://wuf7.unhabitat.org/) this week. The key question they face: How can cities drive growth that is [inclusive and sustainable](http://www.wri.org/blog/safe-city-just-city)?