Despite the growing urgency of the climate crisis, planet-warming emissions rose in 2023 at a faster rate than in the decade preceding the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the latest UN climate report. Countries’ next round of national climate commitments (known as “NDCs”) will be essential to reversing this perilous trajectory.

Due in early 2025, countries’ new and updated NDCs will reveal their near-term plans for tackling climate change. These must represent a “quantum leap” in ambition, per the UN, coupled with much stronger implementation to fulfil their goals.

We answered the most common questions about NDCs to explain what they are, why they matter, and how this next iteration can drive the rapid progress the world needs.

Faith is rarely discussed as a solution to food challenges like hunger, waste and unsustainable farming. But faith groups have the reach and influence to make a significant impact on all these fronts. WRI interviewed leaders from three faith-based organizations already doing so.

This year is now almost certain to be the hottest ever recorded. With the world currently on track for up to 2.9 degrees C (5 degrees F) of warming by 2100, it likely won’t be the last. Our analysis shows how a catastrophic 3 degrees of warming might play out in major cities and why holding warming to half that level is so critical.

Wildfire smoke contributes to tens of thousands of deaths each year — deaths which can increasingly be traced back to climate change, according to new research. As warmer, drier conditions fuel worse and more frequent fires, health risks are just one of the ways people feel the impacts. 

WRI analysis shows that the United States’ shift toward electric vehicles is bringing thousands of jobs in vehicle and battery manufacturing to states that weren’t associated with the auto sector in the past.