WRI Insights

WRI just released a new report that answers the important question: Is the United States on track to meet its climate change commitments?

As we’ve seen recently with [Hurricane Sandy](http://insights.wri.org/news/2012/11/listening-hurricane-sandy-climate-change-here), [epic drought](http://insights.wri.org/news/2012/07/science-behind-us-drought), and [wildfires](http://insights.wri.org/news/2012/07/colorado-forest-fires-and-climate-connection), climate change visibly impacts lives and livelihoods throughout the United States. Global warming’s effects extend beyond people, wildlife, and ecosystems, though: They’re threatening America’s energy infrastructure.

City leaders face incredible pressure to deliver sustainable transportation. Cities now account for more than half of the world’s population—by 2050, they will hold 75 percent of us. These people--[increasingly](http://www.reuters.com/middle-class-infographic) from the middle class--will need ways to commute to work, travel, and carry out their livelihoods.

In a little more than one generation—by the time your grade-schoolers will be seeing their own kids off to school—our planet will be home to 9 billion people. This will create [an unprecedented demand](http://www.wri.org/blog/2013/01/4-grand-challenges-energy-food-and-water) for water, food, and energy--and stress the supporting infrastructure required for life in the 21st century. How are we to meet this demand while respecting planetary boundaries? And importantly, how will we pay for it?

The world is on track to become a very different place in the next two decades. Per capita income levels are rising, the global middle class is expanding, and the population is set to hit 8.3 billion people by 2030. At the same time, urbanization is happening at an accelerated pace—the volume of urban construction over the next 40 years [could equal](http://www.dni.gov/index.php/about/organization/national-intelligence-council-global-trends) that which has occurred throughout history to date.

Water is [very complicated](http://www.wri.org/blog/2012/07/us-drought-demonstrates-complexity-severity-water-risk). It’s affected by large-scale issues like climate change and globalization. International commerce moves virtual water (the water it takes to grow or produce a product) from farms in Brazil to grocery stores in China and Egypt.

Water is a [scarce resource](http://aqueduct.wri.org) in India, especially in the state of Maharashtra, where most rainfall is limited to the monsoon season from June through September. The Government of India has long promoted a Participatory Watershed Development (PWD) approach to deal with this scarcity.

As leaders gather for the [World Economic Forum in Davos](http://www.weforum.org/events/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2013) today, signs of economic hope are upon us. The global economy is on the mend. Worldwide, the middle class is expanding by an estimated 100 million per year. And the quality of life for millions in Asia and Africa is growing at an unprecedented pace.

Two leaders on urban development recently came together on the same stage: Dr. Jim Yong Kim and Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Kim, president of the World Bank, and Bloomberg, mayor of New York City, headlined a panel at the [Transforming Transportation conference](http://transformingtransportation.org/), an event co-organized by the World Bank and [WRI’s EMBARQ Center for Sustainable Transport](http://www.embarq.org/). Through a discussion moderated by Zanny Minton Beddoes, an editor at *The Economist*, and closed by WRI’s president, [Dr. Andrew Steer](http://www.wri.org/profile/andrew-steer), Kim and Bloomberg took on the meaty topic of how to shape the [future of urban transport](http://www.wri.org/blog/2013/01/3-big-opportunities-transform-transportation).

As we enter 2013, there are signs of growth and economic advancement around the world. The global middle class is booming. More people are moving into cities. And the quality of life for millions is improving at an unprecedented pace.