WRI is committed to producing high-quality research, including reports, issue briefs, guidebooks, working papers, technical notes, and practice notes. Our research publications are subject to peer review, and are held to traditional "academic" standards of excellence, such as objectivity and rigor. We also ensure that all of our research publications are timely, fit for audience, and rooted in a strategic plan for achieving positive change in the world. If you notice an error in our research or have concerns about quality, please contact the authors and copy Vice President for Research, Data and Innovation Janet Ranganathan.
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The World Resources Report is the flagship publication of World Resources Institute. The inaugural edition, An Assessment of the Resource Base that Supports the Global Economy, was published in 1986. Subsequent editions have been published at regular intervals and have provided in-depth analyses of issues ranging from human health and the environment to climate change, ecosystem services and environmental governance. Every World Resources Report builds on a strong evidence base to develop fresh insights that can help decision-makers evaluate and implement the most effective solutions.
Sustainably feeding nearly 10 billion people by 2050 is possible – but it will require significant innovation and investment by the public and private sector.
The World Resources Report: Towards a More Equal City focuses on helping cities in rapidly urbanizing regions alter their development trajectories as demand for infrastructure and services grow.
The latest science from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2018) suggests that to meet the Paris Agreement’s temperature goals, the world will need to reach net-zero GHG emissions early in the second half of the next century. At the global level, achieving net-zero emissions means...
In this decade of action for delivering the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the ability of African governments to meet ambitious goals in poverty reduction, health care delivery, education, and other services that depend on access to electricity will be severely compromised if adequate...
This working paper draws on the latest economic research to demonstrate how climate policy and investments in low-carbon infrastructure can reboot America’s economy and set it up for long-term success. On the other hand, delaying action on climate will further expose the United States to costly...
We urgently need to understand how to improve energy access through demand-based approaches. This new study discusses how to implement demand-based approach by examining the results of a pilot project, in which health-care providers in Kenya were able to select renewable energy options to...
As a result of a multitude of factors, such as national and international commitments to Renewable Energy (RE), falling RE prices, government regulation promoting RE, and the advent of sustainability targets, Commercial and Industrial (C&I) consumers all over the world have begun to actively...
Impact investment aiming at generating both financial and socioeconomic returns is critical to achieve universal energy access. Off-grid energy access companies have absorbed about US$1.7 billion worldwide in disclosed investments in the period 2010 to 2018. The pace of investment has accelerated...
In Brazil, where the transport sector is one of the biggest contributors to air pollution in cities, replacing conventional buses with electric vehicles can save lives and positively impact the economy. This is what ImpactAr tool, a technical note and a valuation model, demonstrates. Developed...
The Local Government Renewables Action Tracker is an interactive web tool that presents a compilation of the renewable electricity transactions and advocacy efforts that have been completed by U.S. cities, counties, municipal utilities, and community choice aggregations.
Across sub-Saharan Africa, women play an important role in managing the forests that support their lives, livelihoods and households. Yet they are often excluded from decision-making processes affecting these natural resources. As many African countries take steps to decentralize natural...
This technical note describes the data sources and methodology underpinning a computer system for the automated generation of land use/land cover (LULC) maps of urban areas. Deploying a rich taxonomy to distinguish between different types of LULC within a built-up area, rather than merely...
This paper compares the lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) costs of dairy production across 13 countries and pork production across 10 countries to obtain insights about what causes higher or lower emissions. It counts the GHG gas costs of land use by using carbon opportunity costs, a method that...
The benefits and costs of power plants, including their environmental impacts, depend on their technology and on how much electricity each plant actually generates. However, plant-level generation data are not reported in most countries. This technical note documents methods to estimate the...
According to new data from WRI's Aqueduct Floods Tool, by 2030 the number of people impacted by floods will double worldwide — from 65 million to 132 million due to riverine flooding and from 7 million to 15 million due to coastal flooding. The amount of urban property damaged by riverine floods...
Financial analyses, which consider financial costs and income, have typically informed energy-related decision-making and investment planning. Economic analyses, however, take societal impacts as a whole, and include social, economic and environmental costs and benefits, which are especially...
What cannot be measured cannot be managed. Poor water management poses major risks to agriculture, industry and local communities. However, there is a critical lack of information available about local water conditions — making better management difficult. WRI’s Water Program studies local water...
How countries’ nationally determined contributions (NDCs) are implemented and improved upon over time will determine whether the long-term temperature goal of the Paris Agreement is achieved.
Each country will prepare for and implement its NDC in different ways, based on the nature of...
Indonesia is growing rapidly in terms of the economy and demography. At the same time, Indonesia is emitting greenhouse gas emission and is among the top global emitter. Indonesia has committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 29 percent to up to 41 percent against a business-as-usual...
We present a methodology to forecast conflict (defined as organized violence resulting in at least 10 fatalities over a 12-month period) up to a year in advance using a random forest model. When applied to test data, the model captures 86 percent of future conflicts. The model’s conflict signal...
This working paper provides the first comprehensive approach published that guides organizations on how to calculate upstream water withdrawals and consumption associated with purchased electricity. In addition to a structured methodology, the guidance document provides international country-...
Restoration is more complex than just planting trees. It requires that farmers, rural communities, businesses, and government agencies—all with different interests—unite behind a shared vision. Establishing common goals and measuring progress facilitates deeper collaboration among diverse actors...
