World Resource Institute

2050 is NowAdd Comment|PrintA bean farmer checks her crop in Democratic Republic of the Congo. Photo by Neil Palmer/CIAT The reality of daily life is that we try to fix the problems that are staring us in the face. In many ways, the desire for short-term results defines the rhythm of both public and private life. So the idea that decisions today will define where we end up in a couple of decades is difficult to grasp, and may even appear outlandish. Yet the unprecedented, deadly tropical...

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Fighting for Answers, Indonesia’s Poorest Communities Don’t Know What’s in Their WaterAdd Comment|PrintDrawing water from the Ciujung River. Photo by Indonesian Center for Environmental Law This article is the third in a series on WRI’s latest report, Thirsting for Justice: Transparency and Poor People’s Struggle for Clean Water in Indonesia, Mongolia, and Thailand. This post focuses on Indonesia, where industrial runoff is degrading the water fishermen depend on. Roshadi Jamaludin has...

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Indigenous Communities Fend Off Invaders in the Peruvian AmazonAdd Comment|PrintSettlement seen from the Ucayali River in Peru. We motored down a muddy tributary of the Ucayali River in the Peruvian Amazon, traveling quickly to make it home before dark. We had travelled upriver the day before with eight monitors from Nuevo Saposoa and Patria Nueva, communities of Peru's indigenous Shipibo-Conibo people. Our mission: to investigate and document areas that satellites had identified as possible...

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Powering Cities in the Global South: How Energy Access for All Benefits the Economy and the EnvironmentAdd Comment|PrintImproving energy access improves environmental and economic outcomes. Flickr/Francesco Terzini Kumar is the sole provider for his family. He runs an ironing service in Bengaluru that brings in between $6 and $7.50 a day, enough to barely get by. When the power cuts out two to three times a day in the summer for as long as four hours, Kumar has to stop working, leaving the...

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RELEASE: Increasing Access to Energy in Fast-Growing Cities Is an Economic, Environmental, Social Imperative New WRI study presents solutions to help rapidly growing cities in the global south meet the energy access needs of all residents while achieving climate goals. WASHINGTON (September 7, 2017) — According to a new report from World Resources Institute’s Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, millions of residents in some of the fastest growing cities in the world don’t have access to...

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Left in the Dark on Pollution, Mongolia’s Poorest Communities Must Use Contaminated WaterAdd Comment|PrintHerders in Zaamar, Mongolia. Photo by Zolbayar Bayasgalan This article is the second in a series on WRI’s latest report, Thirsting for Justice: Transparency and Poor People’s Struggle for Clean Water in Indonesia, Mongolia, and Thailand. This post focuses on Mongolia, where toxic chemicals from gold mining threaten residents and their herds. Baasan Tsend, a nomadic herder living in the...

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Navigating Kibera Through Community DesignAdd Comment|PrintA child in Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya. Wrapping your head around Kibera is no easy task. This Nairobi neighborhood is home to more than a quarter of a million people who live in an area smaller than New York's Central Park. Most residents lack affordable access to core city services. Reliable electricity, clean water, sanitation and healthcare are similarly out of reach for many.While living conditions are improving in some areas,...

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Keeping Heads Above Water: Lessons for Building Resilience After Flooding in South Asia and TexasAdd Comment|PrintEscapees from hurricane flooding. (Flickr/SC National Guard) Arriving in Katmandu days after Hurricane Harvey made landfall, I watched footage of the storm's torrential rains batter southern Texas and saw heartbreaking images of families trapped on rooftops surrounded by toxic stormwater. Here in Nepal, more than 13,000 kilometers (8,077 miles) away from Houston, the worst monsoon...

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After the Deluge: How Houston Can Rebuild With ResilienceAdd Comment|PrintHurricane Harvey from space. Flickr/NASA Goddard. As southeast Texas residents and officials conduct what's certain to be a grim accounting of Hurricane Harvey's deadly impacts, they will also turn their attention to rebuilding and recovery. When they do, they will face a clear choice: whether to return to past practices that put them at risk of devastating loss and damage, or to build back more resiliently, with...

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Meet the Experts: Q&A with Leonardo Martinez-DiazAdd Comment|PrintLeonardo Martinez-Diaz, Global Director for WRI's Sustainable Finance Center Leonardo Martinez-Diaz is the Global Director for WRI’s Sustainable Finance Center. A former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy and Environment at U.S. Department of the Treasury for the Obama Administration, he is an expert on climate finance. He has also served at the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and USAID. In a recent interview, he...

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ADVISORY: Press Call: Experts Discuss New Recommendations to Improve Energy Access for the Under-Served in the Growing Cities of the Global South WASHINGTON, DC—Energy is fundamental to economic productivity and livelihoods, and cities have a major role to play in how it is provided and consumed. Cities in the global south (India and South Asia, Southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America) face three fundamental energy challenges: the urgent need to increase access to clean, affordable...

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Winner Take All? Richard Florida’s ‘New Urban Crisis’ Part of Growing Global Focus on Unequal CitiesAdd Comment|PrintBridge across creek in Kibera, Nairobi. Cities are growing rapidly in more places than ever before, but this growth is not always accompanied by prosperity. The specter of inequality – and fear that it could short-circuit economic development – has been rising in the global urban agenda for some years. With the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals in 2016, governments...

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In Thailand, Unmet Transparency Laws Impede Poor Communities’ Struggle for Environmental JusticeAdd Comment|Print"Researchers found traces of chemicals in the water," and we are not able to use the water, explains Map Ta Phut resident "Uncle" Noi Jaitang. "I do not know how to improve the water condition." This article is the first in a series on WRI’s latest report, Thirsting for Justice: Transparency and Poor People’s Struggle for Clean Water in Indonesia, Mongolia, and Thailand. This post...

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RELEASE: Is the Water Safe To Drink? Without Better Access to Pollution Information, Asia’s Poorest People Don’t Know STOCKHOLM (August 30, 2017) — A new report from World Resources Institute’s (WRI) The Access Initiative reveals that Asian countries are not effectively telling people if the water they use for drinking, farming and fishing is polluted or dangerously toxic. Despite passing strong “right to know” laws, governments are still putting their poorest communities at risk by failing to...

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PODCAST: The Business Case for Planting Native Trees in BrazilAdd Comment|Print The World Conference on Ecological Restoration takes place in Iguazu Falls, Brazil. In anticipation of the conference, we spoke with experts on restoration taking place right nearby in Brazil—how it benefits the planet, how farmers can make money in restoration and how enterprises are putting a particularly Brazilian spin on the project. Can we be the first generation in modern human history to leave the planet...

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3 Ways to Keep Rome’s Fountains Flowing After DroughtAdd Comment|PrintTrevi Fountain in Rome. Flickr/Alistair Kitchen "Just the fountains are enough to justify a trip to Rome," said British poet Percy Bysshe Shelly. He would probably be disappointed if he could see those fountains today. A harsh water crisis left Rome's famous fountains dry, with water rationing for residents being seriously considered. Growing up in Rome, I had the privilege to live in the city with the most public...

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The Big Drumroll Ends with a Thud: DOE’s Study on the U.S. Power GridAdd Comment|PrintA power plant in New York. Wikimedia Commons/Matthew D. Wilson The Department of Energy today released its long-awaited grid-reliability study, after months of work at the agency to respond to Secretary Perry’s directive calling for the report. The tone and content of Perry’s April 14th memo suggested to many that the study would inevitably produce a set of findings that coal-fired power plants could take to...

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ADVISORY: New WRI Analysis Reveals Asia’s Poorest People Don’t Know if Their Water is Safe STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN —Industrial facilities release upwards of 400 million tons of toxic pollutants into the world’s waters each year. For many of Asia’s poorest communities who depend on local waterways for drinking, bathing, farming and fishing, they need to know whether their water is polluted or dangerously toxic. At a World Water Week Showcase event on August 30, WRI will release Thirsting for...

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