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by , , , , and - Marine organisms and their genes are rich sources of antiviral compounds. But the ocean genome is at risk, and only some have access to its benefits.
international policy
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by Andrew Steer - April 21, 2020This year, we aren't celebrating Earth Day in the way we expected to. WRI's President and CEO Andrew Steer reflects on what this day means during a global health and economic crisis, and offers five principles worth committing to.
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by Kelley Kizzier, Kelly Levin and Mandy Rambharos - December 02, 2019Depending on how the international carbon markets rules are structured, Article 6 of the Paris Agreement could help countries achieve their climate commitments or let them off the hook. Here’s what you need to know.
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WASHINGTON (August 22, 2016)—The 2016 G20 Summit in Hangzhou, China is just around the corner, September 4-5, and will be the first G20 Summit since the Paris Agreement was reached last December. Many are looking to the G20 for a clear signal from world leaders that the message of Paris was received, and that member countries are putting climate and clean energy action at the heart of their growth agendas.
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Analysis offers specific recommendations for how to move forward in key areas, including finance, mitigation, adaptation, transparency and accountability
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by Geoffrey Henderson, Kristin Igusky, David Waskow, Athena Ballesteros and Paul Joffe - September 29, 2015China committed to establish a national emissions-trading program, while the United States announced new actions to help reduce its emissions 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.
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by David Waskow - August 27, 2015We’re now entering the final, significant stages of negotiations leading up to the major climate summit in Paris in December known as COP21, where countries will reach a new international climate agreement. There are now two week-long negotiating sessions remaining before Paris; the first takes place next week in Bonn, Germany. What issues will negotiators face and what needs to happen at the Bonn meeting?
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by Alex Doukas and Athena Ballesteros - June 15, 2015The excitement around clean energy access through distributed renewable energy has a good basis in real world experience. By creating the right policy and regulatory conditions, international clean energy access initiatives can help other countries benefit from greater access to electricity through distributed renewable energy.
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by Alex Doukas and Athena Ballesteros - June 2015Several ambitious international initiatives that aim to deliver access to clean, modern energy services to underserved populations in developing countries have recently taken root, including the UN Sustainable Energy for All initiative, the Energy+ Partnership, and Power Africa.
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by David Waskow - February 07, 2015With 10 months left until the Paris COP, several key issues bear watching this week as negotiators collaborate on a new climate agreement.
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by Michael I. Westphal - December 11, 2014The International Development Finance Club (IDFC)—a group of international, national, and regional development banks based in the developed and the developing world—released its annual report on green investment (i.e. mitigation, adaptation and ‘other’ environmental finance which includes environmental protection and remediation related projects)—as the world’s climate negotiators were meeting in Lima, and its numbers are significant.
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by Andrew Steer - August 01, 2014Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the IMF, recently launched the latest book in a series on what good fiscal policy should look like in a world of environmental externalities.
The message was clear: Ministers of finance and economics should design their tax systems skillfully so as to tax bad things, like pollution and congestion, rather than good things like work and profit. Not to do so is plain, bad economics.
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by David Waskow - June 15, 2014After nearly two weeks of UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations in Bonn, the pathway to Paris and the new international climate agreement to be agreed there at the end of 2015 is beginning to emerge.
At this mid-year negotiating session held between the annual summits that take place in December, climate negotiators began to discuss key issues, particularly the framework for the national offers that individual countries will make (their “intended nationally determined contributions”).
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by C. Forbes Tompkins and Kelly Levin - March 30, 2014The first installment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report (AR5)—released in September—confirmed the overwhelming scientific consensus that the world is warming, largely due to human activities. The Working Group II (WGII) report, released today, takes this finding a step further: Not only is climate change happening, but every continent on earth is now experiencing its impacts.
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by Paul Joffe, David Waskow, Kate DeAngelis, Wendi Bevins and Yamide Dagnet - November 2013Equity issues will be at center stage in the negotiations for an international climate agreement in 2015.
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by David Waskow - September 30, 2013It’s not every day that several former Heads of State, the leader of the global trade union movement, an organizer of urban slum dwellers, a business leader, and a number of other leaders and advocates all come together on the same page.
But last week it happened. And even more strikingly, it was their common concern about climate change that brought them together.
A diverse group of global leaders launched the Declaration on Climate Justice to highlight the impacts of climate change on world’s most vulnerable people and the urgent need to build a “just transition” to low-carbon and climate-resilient societies. The Declaration outlines the priority actions needed to achieve a climate-just society in the near- and long-terms. (See our backgrounder for more information on the issues raised in the Declaration.)
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by Kelly Levin - September 27, 2013EDITOR'S NOTE 11/18/13: After this blog post was published, the IPCC updated its Summary for Policymakers. The figures in this blog post have been updated to reflect new information.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) has delivered an overwhelming consensus that climate change impacts are accelerating, fueled by human-caused emissions. We may have just about 30 years left until the world’s carbon budget is spent if we want a likely chance of limiting warming to 2 degrees C. Breaching this limit would put the world at increased risk of forest fires, coral bleaching, higher sea level rise, and other dangerous impacts.
When Will Our Carbon Budget Run Out?
The international community has adopted a goal for global warming not to rise above 2°C compared to pre-industrial temperatures. Scientists have devoted considerable effort to understanding what magnitude of emissions reductions are necessary to limit warming to this level, as the world faces increasingly dangerous climate change impacts with every degree of warming (see Box 1).
IPCC AR5 summarizes the scientific literature and estimates that cumulative carbon dioxide emissions related to human activities need to be limited to 1 trillion tonnes C (1000 PgC) since the beginning of the industrial revolution if we are to have a likely chance of limiting warming to 2°C. This is “our carbon budget” – the same concept as a checking account. When we’ve spent it all, there’s no more money (and the planet’s overdraft fees will be much more significant than a bank’s small charges for bounced checks).[^1]
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by Felipe Calderón - September 26, 2013This post was written by Lord Nicholas Stern, president of the British Academy, and Felipe Calderón, former president of Mexico and a WRI Board member. It originally appeared on Project Syndicate.
This Friday, in its latest comprehensive assessment of the evidence on global warming, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will show that the world’s climate scientists are more certain than ever that human activity – largely combustion of fossil fuels – is causing temperatures and sea levels to rise.
In recent years, a series of extreme weather events – including Hurricane Sandy in New York and New Jersey, floods in China, and droughts in the American Midwest, Russia, and many developing countries – have caused immense damage. Last week, Mexico experienced simultaneous hurricanes in the Pacific and in the Gulf of Mexico that devastated towns and cities in their path. Climate change will be a major driver of such events, and we risk much worse.
This puts a new debate center stage: how to reconcile increased action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with strong economic growth.
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Bringing together some of the world’s foremost economic experts to contribute to the global debate about climate change and economic policy, and to inform government, business and investment decisions.
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by Olivia Kember, Erwin Jackson and Merry Chandra - August 2013This report outlines Australia’s policy framework for greenhouse gas emissions reduction, identifies areas of potential change in the near term, and attempts to evaluate the impact of current policies on Australia’s emissions trajectory to 2020.