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.
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. Decarbonization can benefit U.S. economic output, jobs, manufacturing, rural communities, and consumers.
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 improve the continuity of power supply.
This working paper discusses utility-offered RE tariffs in India, a relatively new and underdeveloped topic in the Indian energy sector. It highlights the key principles that could serve to guide the development of such tariffs in India, based on a study of the literature worldwide, as well as on an analysis of the Indian scenario and interviews conducted.
This working paper discusses investments made by impact investors in clean energy access in Kenya, which has been the hub of renewable energy access investment in Africa.
The ImpactAr tool comprises a methodology presented in a technical note and a valuation model to assess the impacts on health and financial and economic costs related to changes in air pollution levels due to modifications in the urban bus fleets in Brazil.
This technical note outlines the methodology behind the Local Government Renewables Action Tracker, 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 since 2015.
New WRI research in Liberia finds that women’s participation in local forest management can improve both their socioeconomic status and the sustainability of forest resources that support local communities’ lives and livelihoods. Yet complex power dynamics, authority and competing interests converge to prevent women from engaging in these decision-making processes. This paper finds that significant social and regulatory change must occur to foster gender and social equity in forest governance.
This technical note describes the data sources and methodology underpinning a computer system for the automated generation of land use/land cover maps of urban areas.
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.
This paper discusses methods to estimate annual power-plant generation for wind, solar, hydro and natural gas plants globally, based on national averages. Generation information is necessary to estimate benefits and costs of power plants.
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.
This working paper proposes a framework to identify and assess the relevant sustainable development impacts of renewable power technologies in India and to estimate their economic rate of return (ERR). This economic analysis approach allows for systematic consideration of relevant socioeconomic and environmental costs and benefits, which are especially critical in energy policymaking and planning.
This Technical Note documents a pilot project to better understand public water management by crowdsourcing responses to a standardized question set. Using the results of the pilot and additional stakeholder interviews, the authors have developed an updated question set to assess conditions of public water management for industrial water users.
This report is dedicated to supporting countries in implementing their NDCs.
This working paper is among the first to address the long-term climate strategy in Indonesia as well as make suggestions on how the strategy could be incorporated into the ongoing process. It identifies the benefits from producing a long-term climate strategy as well as the potential risks from failing to do so for Indonesia. This paper discusses the current progress of Indonesia’s long-term climate strategy, gaps in the process and enabling factors to move forward with an effective LTS for the country.
This paper discusses the data collection, verification, and publication process of a global asset list, the Universal Mill List.
This paper discusses a methodology to forecast conflict up to a year in advance. The model is a product of the Water, Peace, and Security partnership, which is pioneering the development of public information tools and approaches that can support evidence-based actions to reduce security risks and promote water cooperation.
This working paper provides the first comprehensive approach that organizations can use to calculate water withdrawals and consumption associated with purchased electricity. It provides international country-level and U.S. subnational-level water use factors detailing grid average water withdrawal and consumption resulting from electricity consumption.
The Sustainability Index for Landscape Restoration introduced in this report is a field-tested tool for measuring the impact of restoration efforts. It offers easy-to-use visual metrics to display biophysical and socioeconomic indicators that measure the health of a landscape. It also describes how these metrics have been used to convene dialogues among diverse stakeholders who must actively collaborate to restore the land.
This paper explores the environmental impact of Shuttl, a demand-responsive bus service, in the National Capital Region of India.
