Enemies of Energy: World Resources Institute (WRI)

Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from Enemies of Energy, a research report created for the Capital Research Center. The page for the full report is here: Enemies of Energy.

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“The number of people working in clean energy worldwide rose from 30 million in 2019 to about 35 million in 2023, surpassing employment in the fossil fuel sector,” claims the World Resources Institute (WRI). ^[i]

This boast is probably true, but (unintentionally) an admission by the World Resources Institute that they’re in business to waste a lot of resources.

Labor productivity is a simple concept: hours worked divided by output. The hydrocarbon (i.e.: “fossil”) fuel industry provided 80.7 percent of total world energy production in 2023, according to the International Energy Agency, while so-called “clean” energy (wind and solar) contributed 3.3 percent. Generously tacking on hydroelectric dams as “clean” energy gets that total up to just 5.7 percent. [ii]

What the WRI jobs claim means is that 30 million or so “fossil fuel” sector workers are providing almost 81 percent of world energy, while 35 million workers from the “clean energy” sector are adding less than 6 percent. The WRI is admitting that hydrocarbon energy jobs are at least 14 times more economically beneficial than clean energy jobs. For perspective, a 14x difference is roughly the GDP per capita disparity between an American ($84,534, according to the World Bank) and an Algerian ($5,752).[iii]

And WRI predicts the disparity will get worse. “Under current policies, clean energy could create 10 million more jobs by 2030,” claims WRI, “while the fossil fuel sector is expected to lose about 3 million.”^[iv]

Perhaps “Wasted Resources Institute” is the more apt moniker?

One of the richest anti-energy NGOs, the WRI has a lot of resources to waste. For the year ending September 2024, the 501(c)(3) tax exempt, educational nonprofit reported $267.4 million in revenue and net assets of $584.9 million. And even this princely sum was a steep decline from the $357.8 million in revenue the nonprofit reported raking in for 2023.[v]

The American taxpayers have been one big source of the resource extraction. According to USASpending.gov, since 2008 the WRI has received $121.5 million in grants, contracts, and other payments from the federal government. Most of this total ($105.4 million) was funded through the U.S. State Department or the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). And more than half ($66.6 million) was received by WRI during the four years of the Biden administration (2021-2024). [vi]

According to WRI’s 2024 annual report, the following governments also gave at least $750,000 during the year: the European Union, the United Nations, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, France, Canada, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, Luxembourg, Norway, and Denmark. In many cases, such as the United States and Germany, multiple federal agencies were credited with an annual donation of at least $750,000.  [vii]

Another source of resources has been billionaire Michael Polsky, a member of the WRI board of directors and the donor who funded the WRI Polsky Center for the Global Energy Transition. The Polsky Center predictably promotes wind and solar power while steering away from hydrocarbons. Polsky is the founder of Invenergy, a firm that produces wind energy systems and harvests the federal subsidies for same. [viii] [ix] [x]

Similarly, the chair of the WRI board is David Blood. Alongside Al Gore, Blood co-founded Generation Investment Management. The Blood & Gore firm was built to promote and profit from investments in weather-dependent energy. [xi] [xii]

Reliable, emissions-free nuclear power is another matter entirely.

In April 2018, WRI hosted an event for a pair of South African activists who had just won an “environmental” award for their part in getting a South African court to block the construction of a nuclear power plant. The WRI news release claimed this was “a landmark legal victory that protected South Africa from an unprecedented expansion of the nuclear industry and production of radioactive waste.” [xiii]

It was a landmark victory over the world’s most impoverished people. According to Our World in Data, nearly 7.8 million South Africans did not have basic access to electricity in 2023. For all of Sub-Saharan Africa, Our World in Data reports that the number of people living without electricity in 2023 was 589 million.[xiv] [xv]

“WRI has been working in Africa for more than 30 years toward a more sustainable society that can meet people’s essential needs, protect and restore nature and stabilize the climate,” claims the “WRI Africa” page on the NGO’s website. [xvi]

Another WRI web page carries this headline: “Climate Action Has a Messaging Problem.” [xvii]

True enough. But it does create a lot of jobs.

PDF hyperlink to full report

Endnotes

[i] Li, Serena; Joel Jaeger, Neelam Singh and Jennifer Layke. “The State of Clean Energy, in 10 Charts.” World Resources Institute. December 10, 2025. Accessed February 16, 2026. https://www.wri.org/insights/state-clean-energy-charted

[ii] “Data and statistics.” International Energy Agency. Accessed February 16, 2026. https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics

[iii] “GDP per capita (current US$).” World Bank. Accessed February 16, 2026. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD

[iv] Li, Serena; Joel Jaeger, Neelam Singh and Jennifer Layke. “The State of Clean Energy, in 10 Charts.” World Resources Institute. December 10, 2025. Accessed February 16, 2026. https://www.wri.org/insights/state-clean-energy-charted

[v] World Resources Institute. (EIN: 52-1257057). ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer. Accessed February 16, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/521257057

[vi] USA Spending.gov. Recipient search: “World Resources Institute” and “World Resources Institute (WRI).” Accessed February 16, 2026. https://www.usaspending.gov/search?hash=8e7425c573cd183958cebe4af9e5457d

[vii] “Transformation and Impact: Annual Report 2024.” World Resources Institute. Accessed February 16, 2026. https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2025-05/wri-annual-report-2024.pdf?_gl=1*72i983*_gcl_au*MTc1NjI5MTUzLjE3NzEwMTI1Nzc.

[viii] “About.” WRI Polsky Center for the Global Energy Transition. Accessed February 16, 2026. https://www.wri.org/energy/about

[ix] Braun, Ken. “Invenergy: Billionaire Michael Polsky’s Wind Power Colossus.” Capital Research Center. November 8, 2023. Accessed February 16, 2026. https://capitalresearch.org/article/invenergy-billionaire-michael-polskys-wind-power-colossus/

[x] “Michael Polsky: Member, WRI Global Board of Directors.” World Resources Institute. Accessed February 16, 2026. https://www.wri.org/profile/michael-polsky

[xi] “David Blood: Chair, WRI Global Board of Directors.” World Resources Institute. Accessed February 16, 2026. https://www.wri.org/profile/david-blood

[xii] “Viewing AI Through a Sustainability Lens.” Generation Investment Management. November 20, 2025. Accessed February 16, 2026. https://www.generationim.com/our-thinking/insights/viewing-ai-through-a-sustainability-lens/

“Our leadership.” Generation Investment Management. Accessed February 16, 2026. https://www.generationim.com/our-firm/our-leadership/

[xiii] “ADVISORY: WRI Hosts 2018 Goldman Environmental Prize Winners.” World Resources Institute. April 19, 2018. Accessed February 16, 2026. https://www.wri.org/news/advisory-wri-hosts-2018-goldman-environmental-prize-winners

[xiv] “Number of people without access to electricity, 2023.” Our World in Data. Accessed February 16, 2026. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/people-without-electricity-country

[xv] “Number of people with and without electricity access, Sub-Saharan Africa (WB).” Our World in Data. Accessed February 16, 2026. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/number-of-people-with-and-without-electricity-access?country=~WB_SSA

[xvi] “WRI Africa.” World Resources Institute. Accessed February 16, 2026. https://www.wri.org/wri-africa

[xvii] Dasgupta, Ani. “Climate Action Has a Messaging Problem.” World Resources Institute. September 9, 2025. Accessed February 16, 2026. https://www.wri.org/insights/rebranding-climate-action

Source: https://capitalresearch.org/article/enemies-of-energy-world-resources-institute-wri/