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.
All of our research is freely available to download.
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.
By putting into place stronger climate policies and measures in the next five years, China can peak carbon emissions as early as 2026 and get on track to achieving President Xi’s vision for carbon neutrality while generating nearly $1 trillion in net economic and social benefits in 2050.
This working paper examines case studies of three communities in Bhutan, Ethiopia, and Costa Rica that are already experiencing severe impacts of climate change. These case studies explore the incremental and transformative adaptation measures they have adopted or will need to in the future.
This paper examines how the United States, South Korea, China, and the European Union used green investments after the global financial crisis to help their economies recover, create jobs, and build up new industries. The lessons from 2008–2009 can help inform today’s policymakers designing economic stimulus packages in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
To keep the window open to limit global warming to 1.5 C, countries need to accelerate transformation towards a net-zero emissions future across all sectors at a far faster pace than recent trends, according to this report from World Resources Institute and ClimateWorks Foundation, with input from Climate Action Tracker. The report offers insights on what progress is needed by 2030 and 2050 across six key sectors -- power, buildings, industry, transport, forests and agriculture.
This paper highlights how civil society organizations can play critical roles in establishing transparent and accountable climate finance systems that put communities at the center of decision-making. It draws from the Adaptation Finance Accountability Initiative’s experiences in Ethiopia and Uganda as well as lessons learned from similar efforts in Bangladesh, Kenya, and the Philippines. It offers valuable information to help civil society organizations build their engagement and capacity on climate adaptation finance.
This paper describes new methods for estimating the area of forest replaced by commodity production, and presents results for seven key commodities from 2001 to 2015.
The Tool aims to inform bus operators and city officials of the costs, emissions, and social benefits associated with bus fleets using different fuel types. The Tool’s outputs can help bus operators make the most cost-efficient decisions when making a clean bus upgrade, allow transit agencies to validate information provided by bus operators, and inform city officials of the social benefits of a low-carbon transit fleet.
This practice note examines how climate change is threatening coffee-growing regions in Costa Rica, specifically the Coto Brus region.
This report provides practical guidance and recommendations for partnership practitioners, governments, businesses, and civil society organizations working on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It details how partnerships with transformative ambitions can maximize their effectiveness to accelerate SDG action. This report is in collaboration with Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030 (P4G), the Global Green Growth Institute, and the World Economic Forum.
Climate change is already affecting crop production, and in some cases is undermining the viability of current crop systems. The paper explains why transformative adaptation is needed in cropping systems, how seeds systems play a key role in these systemic shifts, and what changes are needed in crop research and development to enable climate-resilient transformations.
As climate change increasingly affects agriculture around the world, reliable, timely, and targeted information about weather and climate conditions is becoming an ever more urgent requirement for adaptation decision-making. This paper considers how transformative adaptation – long-term, systemic change to fundamental aspects of systems in response to or anticipation of severe climate change impacts - could be accelerated by enhancing climate services and how they are applied.
Pollution threatens the lives and livelihoods of billions of people around the world, particularly low-income communities and communities of color. Working with civil society organizations across six countries, WRI created new toolkit to support locally led efforts to secure the basic human right to a clean, healthy and safe environment.
This technical note outlines the methods used by World Resources Institute (WRI) to identify a set of Cool Food Meals on a food provider’s menu.
This paper establishes the collective baseline of Cool Food members’ food purchases and associated GHG emissions, as well as their shared 25 percent GHG emissions reduction target. If members met the target, their actions would reduce emissions by more than 1,071,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year by 2030 relative to the baseline, equivalent to avoiding the annual tailpipe emissions from more than 230,000 passenger vehicles.
This new WRI report estimates that legal and illegal mining in the Amazon now cover more than 20% of Indigenous lands – over 450,000 square kilometers. It also finds that Indigenous lands with mining experienced higher incidences of tree cover loss than on those without – at least three times greater in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru. Yet national laws continue to favor companies over Indigenous communities, the study’s legal analysis reveals. It sheds light on this uneven playing field and offers recommendations for Amazonian governments and mining companies.
Recognizing that addressing climate change in the U.S. will require action at all levels of government, WRI convened thought leaders among current and former U.S. federal, state, and local government officials in a dialogue to explore these topics. This paper sets out the context and findings of the dialogue discussions, and proposes a working federalism framework to delineate roles within a future federal climate policy.
This issue brief provides a synthesis of the papers produced under the Independent Global Stocktake’s (iGST) “Designing a Robust Stocktake” discussion series. It reviews ways to make the GST most effective within the confines of the structure already negotiated.
This report investigated a comprehensive nationwide impact of dockless bike-share systems (DBS) in 12 Chinese cities found that the DBS systems work as a great last-mile urban mobility solution that can enhance the connectivity to public transit, replacing motorized trips as a zero-emission transport means, and improve public health.
This issue brief is designed to inform policymakers of the state of storage technologies and how utility-scale storage (including long-duration storage) can support a decarbonized grid. The brief describes the mix, role and current policy drivers of storage technology today, and explores future grid needs and the potential use of long-duration storage to maintain grid reliability in deep-decarbonization scenarios.
Integrating adaptation across sustainable development initiatives can spur resilient growth, safeguard development gains from climate change impacts and help decision-makers avoid investments that unintentionally increase vulnerability. New research from WRI shines a spotlight on how two counties in Kenya are using innovative, local-level climate funds to move from mainstreaming adaptation planning to action.
