Hong Kong kicked off a public engagement program during June to September 2019 to collect public views, and it will subsequently formulate a long-term decarbonisation strategy. Many cities have committed to carbon neutrality or deep decarbonisation by 2050 or earlier. Copenhagen, for example, committed to being carbon neutral by 2025, and London and New York committed to being carbon neutral by 2050. If Hong Kong can achieve net zero emissions like these cities?

How countries’ nationally determined contributions (NDCs) are implemented and improved upon over time will determine whether the long-term temperature goal of the Paris Agreement is achieved. Each country will prepare for and implement its NDC in different ways, based on the nature of its NDC, how the NDC was first developed, and its national circumstances. Recognizing that NDC implementation is inherently country-driven and location-specific, this document is not meant to be prescriptive. Instead it provides an overview of critical issues that countries can keep in mind while devising their implementation strategies.

Synthesizing results from WRI China’s EV-Grid Simulator, this report analyzes the grid impacts of different types of EV charging within two Chinese cities and recommends the use of VGI measures to defer costly grid capacity expansions.

The report is designed to help practitioners think through how to structure their country’s enhanced NDCs across three dimensions: strengthening targets to reduce emissions (mitigation), enhancing climate resilience (adaptation) and clearly communicating their actions to build trust and facilitate effective implementation.

The report is based on an extensive review of policy and academic literature and official documents. We also conducted semi-structured interviews with 115 MDB staff, representatives from MDB member countries, and other relevant stakeholders. Interviews took place at the headquarters of several MDBs and in seven countries that receive MDB finance: Argentina, Brazil, India, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, and Uganda.

This report features the results of WRI’s 2015–2016 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory. It also shares stories that go in-depth on sustainability projects that were active during the reporting period. Together, the quantitative GHG emissions data and the sustainability stories highlight WRI’s experiences in meeting the competing demands of organizational growth and WRI efforts to reduce absolute environmental impacts.

This report is the first major survey of Tanzania’s mini-grid sector. In it, we shed light on lessons from Tanzania that can help accelerate mini-grid deployment across countries in sub-Saharan Africa. This comprehensive study will be valuable to the large and growing community that is banking on mini-grids to transform energy access in Africa.

Before introducing any mitigation policies, it is essential to thoroughly quantify the emissions inventories and impact costs. However, many developing countries do not have the capacity to quantify the emissions inventories and impact costs from the transport sector because of limited technical support, methodology, data, and awareness. This study was thus designed to help these cities and countries fill such gaps.

Renewable energy (RE) is growing worldwide, with a six-fold increase in non-hydro renewables over the last decade from 85 to 657 gigawatts (GW). This report reviews the key trends that explain growth in RE, and highlights how they are challenging decision making in countries such as Brazil, China, India, and Kyrgyzstan.

This report examines two case studies from Brazil: Linha 4 of the São Paulo Metrô, and Estação Barreiro bus terminal in Belo Horizonte. Based on WRI research on private climate finance (Polycarp et al. 2013; Venugopal and Srivastava 2012), the study adopt a framework that analyzes public interventions on two levels: supporting enabling conditions at the market level and implementing de-risking instruments at the project level.