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.
Large-scale corporate energy buyers are seeking renewable energy as a central element of their overall energy strategy. In a few states, these commercial and industrial (C&I) customers have collaborated with their utilities to create new opportunities to buy renewable energy in ways that...
This joint report from WRI and the American Farmland Trust features lessons learned from six water quality targeting project success stories and highlights key factors that allowed these programs to achieve desirable environmental outcomes. It concludes with recommendations for both public and...
Finance provided and catalyzed by multilateral development banks (MDBs) will help pay for implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement in many developing countries. Although MDBs already track and report on their climate finance, less is known about how...
The Project for Advancing Climate Transparency (PACT) consortium advances the development of robust and effective transparency and accountability rules and processes for the Paris Agreement on climate change. This working paper aims to lay the groundwork for the Paris Agreement’s transparency...
Encouraging Design Practices for Sustainable Mobility in Indian Townships: A Guidebook, is WRI India’s publication that highlights the role of urban design interventions that can be applied in townships or gated communities in cities, that promote the use of sustainable modes such as walking,...
The U.S. Renewable Energy Map: A Guide for Corporate Buyers answers the question, "where is there opportunity to purchase large-scale renewable energy from utilities across the United States?" By identifying these opportunities, buyers can...
The traffic congestion and its high socioeconomic cost, brought by China’s fast urbanization, has forced the demand for congestion mitigation and emission reduction in the transport sector onto the government’s agenda. Several Chinese cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Suzhou are...
The Climate Access Indicators Tool (CAIT) Equity Explorer (WRI 2014), part of WRI’s CAIT Climate Data Explorer suite, is an online visualization tool that aims to inform the UNFCCC international climate negotiations by providing a unique approach to climate equity. This technical note discusses...
The Elephant in the Boardroom: Why Unchecked Consumption is Not an Option in Tomorrow’s Markets is a new working paper from WRI that can guide discussion within companies about an uncomfortable truth: many of today’s business models are not fit for tomorrow’s resource-strained world....
The clean energy economy in the United States—including wind, solar, and efficiency industries—is putting more and more Americans to work. This fact sheet outlines the latest data on how many Americans are working in clean energy and where the jobs are located.
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
