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by and - The world needs to add about a billion homes to meet the demand for urban housing. An "incremental" approach, where the urban poor work with the government in constructing their own homes slowly over time, can help.
cities
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by Todd Gartner and Suzanne Ozment - July 05, 2016Natural infrastructure, strategically managed natural and open spaces like forests or wetlands, can direct more clean water to cities by controlling water flows, preventing sediment buildup and absorbing pollutants before they flow into waterways.
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BEIJING (June 8, 2016)— At the second China-US Climate Smart/Low Carbon Cities Summit, representatives from more than 50 cities came together to enhance cooperation on low-carbon development.
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by Sarah Martin and Bharath Jairaj - May 13, 2016A "prosumer" produces and consumes electricity, usually through rooftop solar panels, while also selling power back to the grid. Prosumers could play an important role in helping India meet its ambitious goal of installing 40 gigawatts of rooftop solar capacity by 2022.
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by Sarah Martin and Joshua Ryor - May 2016With over 9.6 million inhabitants, Bengaluru, in the state of Karnataka, is India’s fourth largest city. Like many utilities serving rapidly growing urban centers in developing countries, BESCOM, Bengaluru’s electricity utility, is struggling to supply sufficient power to meet demand.
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Eight recommended actions can improve energy efficiency in buildings to unlock a “triple win” and address economic, environmental and social challenges in world’s urban areas
WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 11, 2016) — A new policy roadmap from World Resources Institute, Accelerating Building Efficiency: Eight Actions for Urban Leaders, shows how city-level leaders worldwide can overcome barriers to improving building efficiency and reduce energy demand through policy and market action. WRI finds that better energy efficiency in buildings can unlock a “triple win” of economic, environmental and social benefits for cities, and taking action now can avoid locking in decades of inefficiency.
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by Jennifer Layke, Eric Mackres, Sifan Liu, Nate Aden, Renilde Becqué, Peter Graham, Katrina Managan, Clay Nesler, Ksenia Petrichenko and Susan Mazur-Stommen - May 2016This guide provides local governments and other urban leaders in cities around the world with the background, guidance, and tools to accelerate building efficiency action in their communities. The primary intended audience is local government officials in urban areas.
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by Eric Mackres - May 11, 2016New WRI analysis examines the vital role building efficiency can play in shaping sustainable cities of the future. When done right, energy-efficient buildings can generate several social, environmental and economic benefits.
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by Neha Yadav and Benoit Lefevre - April 11, 2016New WRI research comparing high-carbon and low-carbon investment in transportation shows that the low-carbon path offers potential savings of $300 billion a year and is within existing financial flows.
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by Benoit Lefevre, Ahmad Chaudhary, Deeba Yavrom and Aman Srivastava - April 2016Investment in the transport sector has major economic and environmental impacts in both the developed and developing world.
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by Sarah Weber - March 21, 2016Trees improve city dwellers' quality of life by reducing smog, preventing erosion, supporting wildlife and sheltering buildings from heat and cold. On International Day of Forests, Sarah Weber looks at how Tokyo, Belfast and Washington, D.C. have integrated trees into their urban landscapes.
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by Betsy Otto - March 21, 2016While droughts, floods and increasingly rapid groundwater depletion are cause for concern, this year presents unprecedented opportunities to pursue better water management. Director of WRI's Global Water program Betsy Otto explains.
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by Holger Dalkmann and Pierre Guislain - January 13, 2016Transport is both a challenge and a solution to climate change and international development. The Transforming Transportation conference, which takes place January 14th and 15th, will explore how local officials, urban planners and other stakeholders can turn international transport commitments into concrete actions on the ground.
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by Andrew Steer - December 28, 2015Cities designed for cars rather than people create an urban existence that is bad for the economy, bad for family life and terrible for the environment. We can -- we must -- do better in the 21st century, as WRI President and CEO Andrew Steer explains.
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For the 13th year, World Resources Institute will host Stories to Watch, an event looking at the big stories that will shape the world in the coming year. Dr. Andrew Steer, president & CEO, World Resources Institute, will offer his views on the major economic, social, environment and development issues for 2016.
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by Alex Kovac and Wee Kean Fong - December 2015The Compact of Mayors is an international coalition of cities committed to addressing the challenges of climate change. Since its launch in September 2014, hundreds of cities have joined.
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by Andrew Steer and Naoko Ishii - December 03, 2015At COP21's first-ever Buildings Day, WRI and other groups announced the expansion of the Building Efficiency Accelerator to catalyze an increase in energy-efficient buildings in developing country cities.
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PARIS (December 3, 2015) – At the Paris climate conference (COP21), building efficiency took center stage with the launch of the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction.
Supported by a new $2 million grant from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), World Resources Institute (WRI) will leverage and expand its work with city and subnational governments to advance building efficiency policies and actions. The GEF funding to WRI and its partners will help scale up the Building Efficiency Accelerator, which was launched in 2014. These efforts will be coordinated by WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, which aims to create more livable and sustainable cities around the world.
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PARIS (December 2, 2015)– The 100 Resilient Cities (100RC, pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation) initiative today announced new signatories to the 10% Resilience Pledge
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BRASILIA, BRAZIL (November 19, 2015)– The World Health Organization (WHO) released the Declaration from the Second Global High-level Conference on Road Safety: Time for Results. The Declaration recommends a set of actions to improve road safety through stronger management, legislation and enforcement. WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities is a member of the United Nations Global Road Safety Collaboration and has provided expertise on the connection of sustainable mobility and road safety.