Posts tagged with 'mitigation'
Which neighborhoods are suffering the most from rising urban heat? Where is flooding the biggest challenge? What other cities around the world are struggling with air pollution, and what can we learn from those that have improved the quality of ...
2025 is a pivotal moment for climate action. Countries are submitting new national climate commitments, known as “nationally determined contributions” or “NDCs,” that will shape the trajectory of global climate progress through 2035. These new commitments will show how boldly ...
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement, a watershed moment on climate action when more than 190 countries agreed to pursue efforts to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) above pre-industrial levels. Achieving ...
The built environment accounts for over one-third of global emissions. In rapidly developing markets like India and Mexico, a surge in housing construction faces a pivotal choice: lock in high-carbon infrastructure or, with the right interventions, enable resilient, low-carbon designs and ...
In a city, a grassy park might be a place to stretch out with a book, an asphalt road your route to work, a building wall a canvas for a mural. But beyond their familiar roles, each of these surfaces ...
This op-ed was originally published by Context, the media platform of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, on June 16, 2025. Read the original piece here. A new study has found that 4 billion people – half of the world’s population – endured ...
In Istanbul’s Caferağa neighborhood, WRI Türkiye led a community-driven initiative to create a more sustainable, inclusive and livable urban environment. From April 2023 to July 2024, the Livable Caferağa project worked closely with residents to understand the neighborhood’s challenges around overcrowding, ...
Resilience in cities is often framed around large-scale infrastructure projects and sweeping policy shifts. We see headlines about billion-dollar climate adaptation plans, smart cities leveraging AI for disaster response and ambitious net-zero pledges. But some of the most impactful solutions ...
At a moment when all countries need to raise their ambition on climate action, the opposite seems to be happening. Headline after headline show lackluster progress and rolled-back commitments. For one, climate change was a low priority for voters in ...
Despite accounting for less than 3% of global terrestrial area, cities have had an outsized impact on our approach to planetary boundaries, affecting biodiversity and consumption of materials and energy. Studies show that cities have become responsible for 78% of carbon emissions, ...
By midday in Mathare, a densely populated informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya, the sun beats down on the tight rows of wooden stalls and corrugated metal rooftops. At an elevation of 5,889 feet (1,795 meters), Nairobi has long been known ...
Extreme weather events like floods and droughts are becoming more frequent and intense around the globe, disrupting communities and the infrastructure they rely on. In 2024 alone, the world endured 58 disasters that wreaked over a billion dollars in damages each. Yet ...
Colombia is currently updating its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), which will be submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) later this year. This update aims to highlight Colombia’s national priorities, such as biodiversity and food security, ...
What does it take for cities to create a true systems change that creates a holistic, positive shift of the entire urban system? Finding and celebrating examples of this feat is at the heart of the WRI Ross Center Prize for Cities. Since ...
Africa’s cities, from large metropolises to smaller towns, are increasingly characterized by growing urban sprawl. Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, is expanding by about 2,000 people and 5 hectares (10 football fields) every day, according to a World Bank estimate. Kumasi, an intermediary ...
