Publications
WRI is committed to producing high-quality research, including reports, issue briefs, working papers, and technical notes. Our 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 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 one of our publications or have concerns about the quality of our research, please contact the authors and copy Vice President for Science and Research Janet Ranganathan.
All of our publications are 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.
Creating a Sustainable Food Future
Sustainably feeding nearly 10 billion people by 2050 is possible – but it will require significant innovation and investment by the public and private sector.
Towards a More Equal City
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.
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Logging, Mining, And Agricultural Concessions Data Transparency: A Survey Of 14 Forested Countries
by , , , , , and -Global demand for timber, agricultural commodities, and extractives is a significant driver of deforestation worldwide. Transparent land-concessions data for these large-scale commercial activities are essential to understand drivers of forest loss, monitor environmental impacts of ongoing...
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Sludge to Energy: An Environment-Energy-Economic Assessment of Methane Capture from Sludge in Xiangyang City, Hubei Province
by , , and -Rapid urbanization in China has substantially increased the quantity of liquid waste in municipalities, and has simultaneously engendered massive investments in wastewater conveyance and treatment. This increase in the number of wastewater treatment plants has generated a sharp rise in the...
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Nutrient Trading By Municipal Stormwater Programs In Maryland And Virginia: Three Case Studies
by , , , and -Restoring the ecological health of the Chesapeake Bay will require reducing nutrient pollution in urban stormwater runoff. Planning, designing, and constructing the local stormwater management projects that are needed will take many years and be very expensive. Implementing nutrient trading in...
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Water Energy Nexus in Urban Water Source Selection: A Case Study from Qingdao
by , , and -This study assesses the impacts of different water sources (including surface water, groundwater, water transfer and desalination and wastewater reclamation) on the energy consumption of municipal water supply systems. Through the scenario analysis, the report also provides recommendations for...
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Future of the Funds: Exploring the Architecture of Multilateral Climate Finance
by , , and -Multilateral climate funds play a key role in using public finance to help drive the economic and societal transformation necessary to address climate change. There is growing pressure for policymakers to make the architecture of funds more effective and coherent. This report examines seven key...
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Rail Plus Property Development in China: the Pilot Case of Shenzhen
by and -China’s cities face significant challenges in financing the growth of urban transit infrastructure. The current practice of financing urban metro or subway projects through municipal fiscal revenues (partly from land concession fees) and government-backed bank loans is not only inadequate to...
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Attracting Private Investment to Landscape Restoration: A Roadmap
by and -Many restoration projects seek to raise capital, but restoration leaders often lack knowledge of the investment process. The New Restoration Economy—part of the Global Restoration Initiative at the World Resources Institute—has found that successful efforts to attract private capital involve...
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Strategies for Expanding Universal Access to Electricity Services for Development
by , , and -Access to electricity is recognized as fundamental to development, and many efforts are under way across developing countries to scale up access, both in terms of providing basic supply and enabling people to move up through the energy tiers. However, it has become apparent that providing a...
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Governance of Inclusive Transit-Oriented Development in Brazil
by -Transit-oriented development (TOD)—a planning strategy focused on building compact, mixed-use neighborhoods with access to high-quality public transport and mobility options—is key to sustainable urbanization. However, TOD can be exclusive in its design and implementation, leading to the...
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The Economic Impacts of the Clean Power Plan: How Studies of the Same Regulation Can Produce Such Different Results
by and -Various organizations have published forecasts of the economic impacts of the Clean Power Plan (CPP), EPA’s regulation that limits carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, with studies arriving at markedly different conclusions about the effect of the policy on electricity affordability and...
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Transport Emissions & Social Cost Assessment: Methodology Guide
A Guide to the Methodology of Estimating Transport Emissions Inventories and the Associated Social Cost
by -The Transport Emissions & Social Cost Assessment is a project under the World Resources Institute’s Sustainable and Livable Cities Program, funded by the Caterpillar Foundation. The project aims to develop a methodology guide, with a simple MS Excel– based tool, to estimate transport...
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Translating Targets into Numbers: Quantifying the Greenhouse Gas Targets of the G20 Countries
by , and -Countries around the world have set greenhouse gas targets, but they have taken different forms, from reductions in historical emissions to reductions relative to projected business-as-usual scenarios or the emissions intensity of the economy. In many cases, countries have not explicitly stated...
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Navigating the Sustainable Investment Landscape
by , and -A new paper by World Resources Institute finds strong interest and opportunities for sustainable investing within the US institutional investor marketplace. But key barriers persist.
A survey of over 100 investment professionals shows that institutional investors – including pensions,...
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Stimulating Pay-As-You-Go Energy Access in Kenya and Tanzania: The Role of Development Finance
by , , and -The solution to the challenge of financing the scale-up of Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) energy access lies not so much in the development of new initiatives but in the use and redirection of existing approaches for PAYG, particularly the use of credit guarantees, lines of credit, technical assistance,...
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Roadmap to Support Local Climate Resilience
Lessons from the Rising Tides Summit
by and -This paper presents a roadmap of eight priority federal policy opportunities that build on the recommendations from the 2015 Rising Tides Summit, a first-of-its-kind bipartisan gathering of nearly 40 U.S. mayors and local elected officials from 18 of the 23 coastal U.S. states. The policy...
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A Recommended Methodology for Estimating and Reporting the Potential Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Fossil Fuel Reserves
by -This working paper outlines a recommended methodology for estimating and reporting the potential emissions from fossil fuel reserves held by coal, oil, and gas companies. The overall goal is the availability of transparent, credible, and consistent data on potential emissions that help...
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Tracking Adaptation Success for Community Level Watershed Development in India
by , , and -This working paper presents a joint effort by the World Resources Institute and the Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR), a WSD implementing and research organization based in Pune, India, to develop an adaptation monitoring and evaluation (M&E) or tracking system to track success of WSD...
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Achieving Mexico’s Climate Goals: An Eight Point Action Plan
by , , , , , and -This working paper identifies and evaluates the key climate and energy policy options available to Mexico to support the implementation of its INDC. We propose an eight point action plan that has the potential to put Mexico on a path toward achieving its INDC targets, while at the same time...
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The Economic Case for Landscape Restoration in Latin America
by , , , , and -Degraded lands—lands that have lost some degree of their natural productivity through human activity—account for over 20 percent of forest and agricultural lands in Latin America and the Caribbean. Some 300 million hectares of the region’s forests are considered degraded, and about 350 million...
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Protecting Drinking Water at the Source
Lessons from United States Watershed Investment Programs
by , , , , and -Watershed investment programs offer promising pathways to securing safe drinking water. But what does it take to establish and grow a successful watershed investment program? Program investors and practitioners are looking for guidance and ideas on how to build a program that works for their own...
