wri top 10 outcomes 2009

Top 10 Outcomes | 2009

World Resources Institute

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



Asia Pacific ● Bolivia ● India ● Indonesia

● Mexico ● Republic of Congo ● Russia

Turkey ● United States ● Worldwide



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.



“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.



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.



“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.



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.



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.



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.“



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.



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.



“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.



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.”



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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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).



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.”



“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.”



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.

wri top 10 outcomes 2009

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