WRI focuses on seven major global challenges that are key to eradicating poverty, promoting sustainable economic growth, and protecting the environment:

Climate: Helping communities and ecosystems withstand climate impacts while fast-tracking the shift toward a low-carbon global economy.

Energy: Advancing universal access to affordable, reliable, and renewable energy to power inclusive development.

Food: Reshaping global food systems to minimize environmental harm, create fair livelihoods, and sustainably nourish a projected 9.6 billion people by 2050.

Forests: Reducing poverty and hunger, conserving biodiversity, and combating climate change by halting deforestation and restoring degraded landscapes.

Water: Promoting global water security by identifying, assessing, and addressing key risks to water availability and quality.

Sustainable Cities: Designing and scaling urban innovations that improve livelihoods and create cities that are resilient, inclusive, and environmentally sustainable.

The Ocean: Building a “New Ocean Economy” that supports human prosperity and health while conserving and revitalizing marine ecosystems.

WRI drives these initiatives through four core centers—Governance, Business, Economics, and Finance—which serve as the backbone for research, strategy, and cross-sector partnerships that enable large-scale, lasting transformation.