WRI Top 10 Outcomes 2009

World Resources Institute’s Top 10 Outcomes for 2009 exhibit our trademark craft: practical solutions and ambitious action grounded in sound science and objective analysis World Resources Institute

World Resources Institute Asia Pacific ● Bolivia ● India ● Indonesia ● Mexico ● Republic of Congo ● Russia Turkey ● United States ● Worldwide

World Resources Institute In 2009, the Asian Development Bank adopted a new energy policy geared toward supporting clean energy and low-carbon economic growth. The Bank backed it up by committing to provide $2 billion annually to clean energy projects starting in 2013. This would represent a doubling of such investments based on 2008 lending.

World Resources Institute “ Taken together, these initiatives provide some of the strongest commitments yet by an international financial institution to clean energy investment,” explains Isabel Munilla. WRI and its partners in the region played a pivotal role in helping Bank officials develop the new policy.

World Resources Institute In March 2009, Mexico’s 2nd largest city, Guadalajara, unveiled a new bus rapid transit (BRT) system. The 27-station, 16-km system services 130,000 passengers per day, has reduced travel time by 30% and is expected to cut the city’s CO2 emissions by 36,000 metric tons per year, equivalent to removing about 7,000 cars from the roads.

World Resources Institute “ It’s the first phase of an ambitious plan to transform the entire transit system in this city of four million,” says EMBARQ’s Adriana Lobo. EMBARQ and its allied Center for Sustainable Transport in Mexico conceived the project, delivered financing, and helped restructure the entire feeder bus system.

World Resources Institute Looking back to the year 2000, Alexander Perera recounts how “commercial and industrial use of renewable energy in the U.S. totaled less than 250 megawatts.” Nine years later, a pioneering group of 15 U.S. companies quadrupled this output, reaching a collective goal of purchasing 1,000 megawatts of new, cost competitive green power generated from renewable resources.

World Resources Institute In reaching this landmark, the Green Power Market Development Group (GPMDG) has helped catalyze a dramatic scale up of the domestic renewables industry. WRI convened the Group and has worked with companies to explore workable renewable energy technologies, financing strategies, and partnership arrangements.

World Resources Institute In 2009, the Asian Development Bank launched a new program of technical assistance to encourage the growth of small- and medium-enterprises (SMEs) in India and Indonesia that provide environmental and social benefits. “SMEs,” Ella Delio explains, “are the engines of equitable economic growth in emerging market nations.“

World Resources Institute Ella Delio works in WRI’s New Ventures project, which promotes business solutions that align the need for sound financial returns with environmental and social goals. She and her team were the Bank’s primary advisors in developing the new program.

World Resources Institute The passage of the American Climate and Energy Security bill by the House of Representatives in June 2009 represents the biggest step yet taken toward an ambitious national climate policy. For three years, John Larsen has analyzed the greenhouse gas emission reduction trajectories in numerous proposals in the run-up to the bill.

World Resources Institute “ There’s a real appetite on Capitol Hill for WRI’s objective research and analysis,” says Larsen. “Lawmakers turn to our climate experts to better understand the bill’s impact on complex issues like U.S. competitiveness, trade, and jobs.” Larsen’s own work helped inform the bill’s targets and timetables.

World Resources Institute Forest loss and degradation are major contributors to global GHG emissions. “Several large-scale multinational initiatives have emerged to help developing countries reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation,” explains Smita Nakhooda. “REDD is the shorthand for this objective.”

World Resources Institute Improving forest governance – the rules and practices that determine how decisions about forest resources are made – will be critical to the success of REDD efforts. WRI’s timely and sound analysis on forest governance has been pivotal in shaping new REDD initiatives at the United Nations and World Bank.

World Resources Institute Stretching from the Baltic to the Sea of Japan, Russia’s forests are the largest in the world. In recent decades, road-building, logging, and wildfires have increasingly degraded these ancient and previously largely intact forests.

World Resources Institute To protect some particularly valuable forests, the Russian government used data provided by Global Forest Watch Russia, a partnership between WRI and several Russian forest conservation groups. Dr. Lars Laestadius leads WRI’s work in Russia.

World Resources Institute The ancient metropolis of Istanbul is now a sprawling megacity, struggling with congestion, air pollution, and the submergence of its cultural heritage beneath new overpasses and car infrastructure. In March 2009, the city unveiled the world’s first inter-continental BRT corridor across the famous Bosphorus Bridge, a major bottleneck for travelers between Europe and Asia.

World Resources Institute EMBARQ developed the plan in coordination with city officials, conducted travel demand studies, and recommended the particular routing and station locations that ultimately were built. “Crossing the bridge by car takes as long as 3 hours, but commuters using BRT now cross in about 30 minutes and produce 95% fewer CO2 emissions than drivers,” explains EMBARQ’s Sibel Bulay.

World Resources Institute In early 2009, Bolivia overhauled its federal constitution. Among its sweeping changes are new legal rights for citizens to take part in public policy planning and to be consulted and informed on decisions that may affect environmental quality and natural resource use. The constitution also establishes the country’s first environmental and agricultural court.

World Resources Institute These provisions are largely the result of work by WRI and PRODENA, one of Bolivia’s oldest environmental advocacy organizations. “Using a toolkit WRI developed, together we identified weak- nesses in Bolivia’s proposed new constitution regul-ating public access to environmental information, participation, and justice,” explains Lalanath de Silva, director of WRI’s Access Initiative (TAI).

World Resources Institute The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is one of the world’s richest countries in terms of natural wealth, yet among the poorest in terms of GDP. Forests blanket 60% of the country. In 2005, with World Bank financing, the government launched a process to review and convert old logging titles into forest concessions aligned with the country’s new forest code.”

World Resources Institute “ Acting as the international independent observer, alongside our Belgian partner AGRECO, we designed the review methodology, provided technical support, and ensured compliance with the law,” explains Pierre Methot. “We insisted the process and results be made publicly available and that local and indigenous populations be involved.”

World Resources Institute Today’s environmental challenges are complex and global in nature. Finding solutions to these challenges is what WRI is all about. It’s big work with big impacts. An investment in WRI is an investment in our future, and in the health of our planet. Visit http://www.wri.org to give.

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WRI Top 10 Outcomes 2009

by World Resources Institute (WRI)

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