In 1970, NRDC became America’s first litigation-focused nonprofit dedicated to making dirty industries clean up their pollution. Since then, our attorneys have been at the forefront of protecting our nation’s air, land, water, and wildlife. In 2006, we established a specialized team of litigating attorneys to bolster our trial expertise and target opportunities where courtroom pressure can have the biggest impact. These areas include environmental justice, air and water pollution, public health, and marine mammal protection. The litigation team now includes lawyers and paralegals in New York City, Washington D.C., San Francisco, and Chicago.

We take on powerful companies—from giant oil corporations to mining conglomerates—when they contaminate the air or dump toxic waste. And we help to assure justice to people living next door to dangerous pollution. We develop novel cases and train new generations of lawyers in all aspects of litigation. In the spirit of transparency, we protect and expand public access to the courts and government records. And we collaborate closely with policy experts and scientists to determine how litigation can assist broader advocacy campaigns, such as removing antibiotics from livestock feed or preventing oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean.


BROCHURE

Litigation at NRDC

DOWNLOAD THE BROCHURE (PDF)

OUR PRIORITIES

  • Joining forces with nontraditional allies to broaden the definition of an environmental law case, including advocating on behalf of prison inmates exposed to toxic pollution, helping workers protect themselves against unsafe conditions, and protecting public housing residents from mold
  • Strengthening public access to the courts on food and agriculture issues, especially through lawsuits on antibiotics in animal feed and other hazards
  • Building on our courtroom accomplishments through any kind of litigation, on any issue, including trials that require intensive fact and expert discovery
Litigation
Since 1970, NRDC's attorneys have been at the forefront of protecting our nation’s air, land, water, and wildlife. Program
The US Supreme Court
Overview

Litigation is in NRDC’s DNA. Follow some of our landmark cases.

Victory

A landmark class-action lawsuit settlement has 400,000 New York City public housing residents breathing easier.

Blog Post

The agency recently finalized two flawed, industry-friendly rules for evaluating the risks of chemicals on our health and the environment.

Victory

An NRDC lawsuit has led to the comeback of the Golden State’s second-largest river (and its salmon).

Blog Post

The president signed proclamations on Monday that would strip protections from Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments.

Press Release

A Maine court held the former owners of a chlorine bleach plant accountable for tons of mercury it dumped into the Penobscot River over the course of four decades.

Blog Post

A coalition of groups, including NRDC, are suing the Trump administration for rolling back these important protections.

Press Release

NRDC sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in federal court in New York today to force it to set limits on perchlorate.

Blog Post

The Michigan city's water was contaminated with lead—and public officials knew about it. NRDC is heading to federal court to demand justice.

Victory

How we got the U.S. Navy to finally agree to stop conducting harmful sonar testing in sensitive whale migration and breeding areas.

NRDC in Action

These four NRDC lawyers would finish each other’s thoughts—at any odd hour of the day or night—in their quest to help victims of the city’s lead crisis.

NRDC in Action

NRDC Chief Counsel Mitch Bernard takes on big polluters, climate deniers, and their powerful allies—including those who sit in the West Wing.

Blog Post

NRDC is suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for greenlighting the use of neonics without first considering their harm to endangered species.

Blog Post

In response to an NRDC lawsuit, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency restored a rule to protect the public from mercury pollution.

Blog Post

In our first lawsuit against the EPA’s rollbacks on climate change, a federal court reinstates limits on harmful methane pollution.

The Center for Market Innovation, or CMI, is accelerating the shift to a greener, more prosperous economy that benefits everyone. We aim to implement new approaches to finance and investment that offer strong profit potential and increased opportunity for people of all income levels. Our experts collaborate with private- and public-sector leaders to accelerate the adoption of more resilient, inclusive, and efficient investment models.

Many Americans share the concern that business-as-usual is limiting human progress and taking a dangerous toll on vital ecosystems. In response, we need to replace old tools and frameworks with fresh solutions that allow people to thrive, supported by a healthy base of natural resources. CMI does this by piloting strategies and taking them to scale using demonstration projects and financing tools that help boost profits while making markets greener and more accessible.

CMI focuses on food, water, shelter, and energy, as these are the building blocks of life and hold the greatest potential for transformative environmental market opportunity. We bring a deep understanding of the underlying dynamics of each market area and the synergies among them. Our work covers everything from green banks, green bonds, better beef, and sustainable regional food systems to energy efficient apartments, distributed energy resources, and green infrastructure. By applying our technical expertise and cultivating strategic relationships, we are helping to create smarter solutions.

OUR PRIORITIES

  • Identifying and removing barriers to viable solutions
  • Promoting new financing models and tools
  • Documenting and publishing best practices, reports, and market analyses
  • Developing, testing, and deploying new solutions
  • Partnering with key decision makers and community leaders to replicate successful models
  • Increasing transparency and fairness so that people of all incomes and backgrounds can benefit from—and participate in—investment decisions
https://twitter.com/NRDC_cmi
Center for Market Innovation
Program
Policy Solution

We are developing innovative finance tools to expand clean energy markets that improve cities, safeguard the environment, and boost jobs.

Issue Paper

Infrastructure projects should also deliver numerous economic, social and environmental benefits—such as jobs, improved mobility and climate resiliency.

Blog Post

Change does not come easily at the three large housing finance agencies: the Federal Housing Administration, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac.

Blog Post

Most people agree that we need to reduce climate-changing emissions around the world. But how do we pay for it?

Blog Post

High road infrastructure doesn't just fix what breaks. It makes cities and communities safer and stronger for generations to come.

Overview

This dispatch from the high road infrastructure working group breaks down the approach's mission, barriers, and best solutions.

Report

The average low-income housing resident spends more than three times what others pay in energy costs. Cost-saving energy efficiency and clean energy opportunities can change that.

Policy Solution

We promote changing rooftops, building rain gardens, and planting trees—all to capture rainwater where it falls.

Science is the foundation of NRDC’s work to protect people and the environment. NRDC scientists work to understand and solve complicated environmental problems and, with our policy and legal experts, to develop and advocate for evidence-based public policies that improve peoples’ lives and protect the natural systems on which we all depend. Our expertise in biology, physics, chemistry, medicine, toxicology, public health, and engineering is a connecting thread through all our issue areas and programs, from climate change and clean energy to sustainable agriculture and health.

NRDC’s Science Center supports and strengthens our use of science—and how we communicate our results clearly and accurately. Staffed by experts in environmental science, public health, data analysis and science communication, the Center provides guidance and resources for research, collaboration, and with the Science Fellows program, training for the next generation. Science Center experts oversee NRDC’s independent peer-review of our own publications—as well as support and develop related communication for media, from scientific journals to animated videos.

OUR PRIORITIES

  • Support scientific research and analysis to identify environmental problems, craft evidence-based policy solutions, and support our advocacy to advance these policies in government, the courts, communities, and with the public. 
  • Enable NRDC to research emerging issues by bringing top-notch postdoctoral Science Fellows to work with NRDC scientists, policy experts, and advocates.
  • Facilitate engagement and collaboration with scientists from universities, research labs, and other institutions to expand the scope of our work.
  • Ensure that all aspects of NRDC’s work are backed by the strongest and most relevant science available.
Science Center
Program
Blog Post

There are three simple steps you can take to translate science into a plan of action.

Campaign

Climate change threatens our health by warming the planet, exposing us to a range of heat-related illnesses. About two-thirds of Americans—nearly 210 million—live in areas with a greater-than-expected number of dangerous extreme heat days, new NRDC analysis finds.

Blog Post

The blacklegged tick has seen a population explosion in the eastern United States, doubling the number of counties in which it’s established, in less than 20 years.

Issue Brief

Even if you don't live in an area prone to wildfires, your health may be threatened by smoke from fires raging in other parts of the country.

Blog Post

Science is for everyone—and our future depends on it.

Blog Post

Ahmedabad is among the first cities in India where city leaders, state government, and civil society are voluntarily working together to improve air quality.

Since 2007, NRDC’s Midwest program has worked to protect this important and central region from pollution and to harness its potential for a clean energy revolution. If Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin combined to form a country unto itself, it would be the fourth-largest carbon emitter on the planet. At the same time, the region’s bounties of water, sun, wind, soil, and labor resources make it especially ripe for a clean energy revolution.

We use our scientific, legal, and advocacy prowess to promote energy efficiency and new clean technologies and to fight dirty coal and tar sands oil. We helped Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Missouri, and other states to transform regional energy sectors through wind, solar, and other clean energy technologies. We defeated dirty coal projects in Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan and stopped construction of a massive new power plant and a coal refinery. And our lawsuits have forced the cleanup of dangerous refinery pollution from tar sands—the source of world’s dirtiest oil—and identified new dangers in the tar sands industry's aging pipeline system.

However, the picture isn’t complete without protecting our precious waterways. We've taken a leading role in the fight to protect the Great Lakes—which represent one-fifth of the world’s freshwater—from dangerous invasive species. We are also working to clean up the Chicago River, one of the most ignored and abused waterways in the nation. NRDC led the fight that forced regional water regulators to stop dumping untreated sewage into the river, giving the world-class city a first-world waterway.

OUR PRIORITIES

  • Promoting renewable energy technologies, including wind and solar, to clean the region’s air, reduce its carbon footprint, and revitalize its economy
  • Shrinking the coal and tar sands industries, both of which are extremely dangerous for the environment and public health
  • Protecting the region’s waterways from pollution and invasive species
Midwest Program
Program
Report

Ohio has the opportunity to achieve deep carbon reductions—getting the state far down the road for hitting the interim and final targets proposed in the Clean Power Plan.

Fact Sheet

Cutting Carbon Pollution Under the Clean Power Plan

Issue Brief

If Illinois addresses the fragmented market problems for renewable energy and the state’s budget cap that limits utility investment in energy efficiency, it can meet and surpass its clean energy standards.

Blog Post

As pipelines and trains deliver more and more tar sands crude from Canada, we can expect to see growing black mounds of toxic petcoke in communities across the nation.

Blog Post

Despite all the national attention and big talk from politicians who should share blame for the poisoning of Flint, little has been done to improve the city's core water problems.

Policy Primer

Petroleum coke, typically stored outdoors in big open piles, can blow right into nearby homes and cause serious health problems. Unsurprisingly, communities are fighting Big Oil to keep this noxious material out of their backyards.

The New York program works throughout the Northeast—including New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania—to protect the region’s environment, advance NRDC’s top initiatives through local action, and turn our advocacy successes into models that can be replicated in communities across the country.

NRDC was born in Manhattan four decades ago. Since then, our New York team has taken on the region’s biggest environmental issues. These include cleaning up and safeguarding the Hudson River; launching the nation’s largest recycling program; reducing diesel, smog, and other air pollution threats; protecting the Catskills and other parklands; and bringing forth successful environmental justice lawsuits that protect vulnerable communities.

The New York program also helps direct the advocacy efforts of other NRDC programs that work on the ground in the region. We house the organization’s national Environmental Justice Initiative, which grew out of our pioneering work in New York City. And NRDC’s New York political director, based in Albany, is part of the New York program and serves as the top legislative advocate for all of our New York State-based efforts.

OUR PRIORITIES

  • Working to secure a fossil fuel free future for New York and the surrounding region by fighting pipelines and other infrastructure as well as scaling up renewables and energy efficiency.
  • Partnering with low-income communities and communities of color to fight against environmental hazards that threaten their health and quality of life, and providing legal representation to Environmental Justice Initiative and community groups when necessary
  • Building stronger, more equitable regional food systems by creating new laws and policies, including those that help cities, like New York, make school meals healthier and more sustainable
  • Continuing to lead the transformation of New York City’s waste policy from a reliance on landfills and incineration to an increased use of recycling, composting, and waste prevention
  • Protecting the quality of New York City’s drinking water supply—the nation’s largest—via cost-effective pollution prevention and watershed protection strategies
  • Addressing the aftereffects of Hurricane Sandy and using this extreme weather event as launchpad for broader activities that enhance resilience and preparation for climate-related storm events in the New York region and beyond
#NRDCNY
New York Program
Program
Explainer

Environmental justice is an important part of the struggle to improve and maintain a clean and healthful environment, especially for those who have traditionally lived, worked and played closest to the sources of pollution.

Victory

A landmark class-action lawsuit settlement has 400,000 New York City public housing residents breathing easier.

Blog Post

Six of the country’s largest school districts have teamed up to form the Urban School Food Alliance, a partnership that’s pushing for healthier and more environmentally friendly lunchrooms by leveraging its combined purchasing power.

Blog Post

A two-year pilot of a new law clinic will provide much-needed legal services to farmers, community and grassroots groups, and mission-oriented food and beverage entrepreneurs.

Blog Post

Environmental coalition petitions the EPA to ensure GE doesn't abandon its PCB mess in the Hudson River.

Blog Post

Fifty NYC groups and two leading councilmembers call on Mayor de Blasio and Speaker Mark-Viverito to dump polysytrene foam food and beverage containers.

Blog

LG redesigns office building to preserve iconic views.

Northeast Dispatch

New Yorkers are resisting efforts to sextuple the number of anchorage grounds in the river and transform their backyard into a parking lot for oil barges.

Canada

River Jordan for NRDC

Unparalleled global treasures stretch across the distant reaches of Canada, from the Great Bear Rainforest along British Columbia’s coast to the boreal forest, which accounts for a quarter of the world’s remaining intact forests and holds nearly twice as much carbon as all the world’s oil reserves combined.

These ecosystems are home to hundreds of Indigenous communities and many of North America’s most iconic species. They also play a pivotal role in protecting our climate. But industrial activities threaten them with irreparable harm—activities like the development of Alberta’s tar sands, among the world’s dirtiest sources of oil, and the clearcutting of more than a million acres of boreal forest each year.

Canada’s energy and land-use decisions have major implications for its future, as well as that of its neighbors in the United States and the climate of the entire planet. This is why NRDC works with Indigenous allies and environmental partners to protect the country’s landscapes and shape its conservation choices, from Quebec’s James Bay to British Columbia’s Clayoquot Sound.

Some of our accomplishments:

  • NRDC experts have gained a reputation for credible research that has earned us a place in the federal regulatory process, shaping decisions on issues such as tar sands pipeline proposals and deep-sea drilling. We have established trusted partnerships with Indigenous allies, environmental and community groups, and government agencies, making us one of the few environmental organizations that can convene key stakeholders on both sides of the U.S.–Canadian border.
  • NRDC is defending Canada’s boreal forest from unsustainable logging, which is driven in part by the U.S. demand for single-use, throwaway products like toilet paper. We support our allies by backing their efforts to establish Indigenous protected areas and by challenging companies like Procter & Gamble to stop using intact boreal forest to make products like Charmin toilet paper.
  • As one of the first organizations to call international attention to the destructive power of oil production from Alberta’s tar sands, NRDC worked with a coalition that stopped the Northern Gateway tar sands pipeline and the Energy East pipeline that would have brought hundreds of tar sands tankers down the U.S. Atlantic coast. We continue to fight the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry tar sands oil from Canada to refineries on the Gulf Coast, and we work to protect our communities and marine ecosystems along the Pacific coast from tar sands tankers.
NRDC in Action

For more than a decade, NRDC has worked with indigenous communities in Alberta, U.S.-based grassroots groups, and intergovernmental bodies to halt the expansion of dirty tar sands oil.

Blog Post

We’re destroying forest ecosystems—and ancient, sacred First Nations communities—to satisfy the market for this everyday consumer product. We can and must do better.

Blog Post

As a starting place, we must stop clearcutting the largest intact forest in the world—Canada's boreal forest—to make single use, throw away products for which climate safe alternatives are readily available.

Blog Post

Expert panelists joined NRDC to host a webinar examining the harmful climate effect of widespread industrial activity taking place across Canada's boreal forest.

NRDC in Action

For more than a decade, we've fought to keep this filthy fossil fuel from being dredged up and piped through the United States.

Blog Post

But the administration has yet to release the more thorough (and court-ordered) environmental review for the project.

EXPLAINER

At every turn, the Tar Sands Invasion would put people and the environment in harm's way.

Guide

How a single pipeline project became the epicenter of an enormous environmental battle

Blog Post

Will Prime Minister Justin Trudeau live up to his early promise as an international environmental leader? Or will he and his government revert to business as usual?

Victory

The ancestral homeland of British Columbia’s First Nations is no place for a dilbit disaster.

Action Figure

Valérie Courtois is guiding an indigenous-led conservation strategy for one of the world’s last great forests.

Personal Action

In the United States, we consume more than 15 billion pounds of tissue each year—more than 50 pounds per person. It’s taking a major toll on forests like the Canadian boreal.

Blog Post

With the announcement of a CAD $175 million commitment to fund 67 conservation initiatives, the Canadian government has invested in a more sustainable, healthier future by protecting some of its treasured landscapes, including in the boreal forest.

Action Figure

What is it like to study one of North America’s most elusive mammals? Meet wildlife ecologist Tyler Rudolph, whose boreal caribou research may help the threatened animal survive.

Blog Post

We need a good neighbor more than ever right now—for the sake of both our countries.

India
A family of salt farmers in Gujarat, India that transitioned from diesel to solar-powered irrigation

Madhura Joshi/NRDC

India is emerging as a global leader and an economic powerhouse. Yet the nation of 1.3 billion people is facing multiple unprecedented challenges—extreme weather events, health burdens from pollution, poverty alleviation, and now COVID-19. As the world’s third-largest emitter of carbon dioxide, India is extremely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, including more deadly heat waves and cyclones.

The fight to keep the planet below the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold cannot be won without India’s support. For more than a decade, NRDC and our on-the-ground partners have been working with government agencies, academic institutions, and civil society leaders on three interconnected initiatives: clean air and healthy cities; cooling and efficiency; and renewable energy. Through the vision of fearless climate leaders and continued knowledge sharing, India’s strong climate plan will pave the way to sustainable economic development, create jobs, promote equitable access to clean energy, provide cleaner air for communities, and combat climate change.

Some of our accomplishments with our partners:

  • In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, NRDC helped launch the country’s first standards and compliance system for energy-efficient buildings. Since 2017, more than 150 buildings have been compliant in the two states. In expanding this work to other states, we aim to save an estimated 3,453 TWh of cumulative electricity by 2030—the equivalent of taking 47 million cars off the road for one year.
  • Across cities in India, NRDC’s work on life-saving heat action plans is building climate resilience. In western India, NRDC coordinated with city officials and public health institutions to develop the Ahmedabad Heat Action Plan in Gujarat, South Asia’s first early-warning system for extreme heat. Backed by groundbreaking scientific research, the plan helps protect those who are most vulnerable, including slum communities and outdoor workers. The award-winning plan has been replicated in more than 100 cities and 23 of India’s 29 states, representing more than 700 million people.
  • NRDC worked with stakeholders in Ahmedabad and Hyderabad, Telangana, to launch the first-ever cool roof model program in India, initially covering 3,000 roofs for low-income families and now expanding toward 15,000 government and slum rooftops.
  • In Ahmedabad, NRDC helped the city launch the first-ever air quality index plan. Extending the program to Pune, Maharashtra, NRDC promotes clean air plans and health-risk communication to minimize children’s exposure to air pollution while integrating pollution reduction measures in both cities.
  • In Gujarat and Telangana, NRDC is working on electric mobility policies—focused on charging infrastructure—to improve air quality.
  • Together with partners, NRDC conducted India’s first analysis on job creation in the solar and wind energy sectors. The groundbreaking analysis shows that achieving India’s ambitious renewable energy target of 175 gigawatts has the potential to create up to one million short-term and long-term job opportunities by 2022. Findings like this, which were shared with India’s parliament, help build political support for clean energy.
  • In collaboration with a leading women’s grassroots group, NRDC helped improve the lives of more than 1,500 women salt farmers in the Gujarat desert by replacing expensive diesel-powered water pumps with solar-powered ones—increasing their incomes by 94 percent. This partnership is on track to reach 15,000 solar-powered pumps and 43,000 families. Now, we are developing village-level clean energy plans with solar pumps and energy efficiency solutions that help communities support livelihoods, save costs, and reduce pollution.
  • NRDC is contributing to developing India’s first green bank-like structure within an existing public financial institution to help attract new capital and grow the market for clean energy. This includes working with the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency to implement financing solutions—or green windows—to channel $1.2 billion (USD) in capital over 10 years, targeting underserved and emerging markets with decentralized renewable energy programs, such as rooftop solar, electric vehicles, and battery storage.
  • Leveraging our relationships in India, China, and the United States, NRDC promoted global climate cooperation on the Paris Agreement, U.S.–India partnership, and the groundbreaking Kigali Amendment in the Montreal Protocol. To help India meet its commitments—and as part of the India Cooling Action Plan, which addresses the skyrocketing consumer demand for cooling—NRDC is working to phase down powerful heat-trapping hydrofluorocarbons, increase air conditioner efficiency, and promote low-cost cool roofs and green buildings for all.
Explainer

As the country's economy improves—and temperatures rise—tens of millions of people are installing air conditioners. That spells trouble for climate change.

NRDC in Action

Fighting deadly heat waves is futile, but preparing for them might wind up saving thousands of lives across the country.

Blog Post

The chance to meet with women from all walks of life during a recent trip to India inspired me beyond expectations—and continues to on this International Women’s Day.

Policy Solution

We are developing innovative finance tools to expand clean energy markets that improve cities, safeguard the environment, and boost jobs.

NRDC in Action

Senior attorney and India program director Anjali Jaiswal leads a small team that’s accomplishing big things in one of the world’s most polluted countries.

Q&A

Anjali Jaiswal, director of NRDC’s India program, discusses harnessing the power of clean energy in the country.

NRDC in Action

By powering their pumps with solar energy instead of diesel, Indian salt farmers are investing in their own brighter futures.

NRDC in Action

The western city of Ahmedabad is preparing residents to cope with the longer and more intense heat waves sweeping across South Asia—and inspiring other Indian cities and states to follow suit.

Blog Post

From embracing clean energy to improving waste management, these Indians are working to curb climate change—and ensure a cleaner, healthier future for their children.

Dust
Blog Post

Indian cities are leading efforts to address the air pollution crisis.

Blog Post

NRDC works with partners in India to strengthen and scale climate resilience.

Blog Post

NRDC and the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) conducted household surveys to understand how people use energy and how much time and money they spend to access it.

Latinoamérica

Natalia Catalina/iStock

Latinoamérica cuenta con una variedad espectacular de paisajes y de vida silvestre, así como culturas, tradiciones y sistemas políticos muy diversos. Pero muchos países latinoamericanos enfrentan un desafío común: alcanzar metas de desarrollo económico y proveer a sus poblaciones con suficiente energía, alimento y servicios, a la vez que se protegen áreas naturales, aguas y bosques y se limitan las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero.

Los impactos del cambio climático ya se pueden observar a lo largo del territorio latinoamericano y aumenta la urgencia de implementar soluciones sostenibles, tanto para las comunidades rurales como para las ciudades en expansión. Afortunadamente, la región es un centro para soluciones climáticas en sectores tan diversos como la energía, el transporte, la conservación y las finanzas. Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, y México también han surgido como una fuerza progresiva a favor de la acción climática mundial.

NRDC colabora con una gran gama de socios para abordar los desafíos ambientales que enfrenta la región y ampliar el potencial para nuevas soluciones sostenibles. Juntos, promovemos políticas públicas robustas y enfoques innovadores que ayuden a los países latinoamericanos a avanzar hacia un futuro bajo en carbono y resiliente al cambio climático, a la vez que se protege a las comunidades y los recursos naturales indispensables. Nuestro trabajo defiende el derecho fundamental de toda comunidad a tener voz y voto en las decisiones que afecten su salud y el medio ambiente. Con un enfoque especial en temas relacionados a la energía limpia, nuestro trabajo incluye análisis técnicos y económicos, estudios y recomendaciones de políticas públicas, actividades de difusión de información, y procesos colaborativos.

Algunos de nuestros logros:

  • Promovemos una transición a la energía limpia, basada en los recursos excepcionales de energía renovable con los que cuenta la región y su potencial en eficiencia energética. Por ejemplo, colaboramos con la Asociación Chilena de Energías Renovables y Almacenamiento para evaluar los beneficios económicos y sociales de una mayor penetración de energías renovables en la matriz energética nacional.
  • Para abordar problemas crónicos de contaminación atmosférica en ciudades como Santiago de Chile y la Ciudad de México, promovemos soluciones de transporte sostenible como combustibles diésel más limpios, estándares más rigurosos para las emisiones y la eficiencia de vehículos, y la electromovilidad.
  • Expertos de NRDC ayudan a desarrollar soluciones financieras innovadoras para estimular la inversión en un futuro bajo en carbono y resiliente a los cambios climáticos. En México y Chile, trabajamos con instituciones financieras clave para adaptar las lecciones del modelo “banco verde” e impulsar el liderazgo local en finanzas verdes.
  • Colaboramos con nuestros socios locales para juntos defender paisajes emblemáticos y especies amenazadas. Como parte de nuestros esfuerzos participamos en la campaña para proteger los ríos libres de la Patagonia Chilena de grandes proyectos hidroeléctricos.
  • En la Región Metropolitana de Chile, nos asociamos con organizaciones locales para mejorar las prácticas de gestión del agua y abordar la escasez hídrica para que todos en la región puedan acceder a agua limpia y potable.
Resource

Mejorar el manejo de vegetación debajo y alrededor de las líneas de transmisión puede ofrecer beneficios para el medio ambiente, comunidades y empresas.

Resource

NRDC y nuestros socios locales están organizando una serie de seminarios en línea sobre las soluciones que ayudan a garantizar el acceso al agua limpia para más personas y para los ecosistemas.

Policy Solution

NRDC trabaja con socios en la región en la creación de soluciones innovadoras para reducir los contaminantes y las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero provocadas por el sector transporte.

Policy Solution

NRDC trabaja en la lucha contra la explotación de los tesoros naturales de la región y para apoyar el desarrollo sostenible.

Policy Solution

Los expertos de NRDC trabajan con los líderes locales para reducir la dependencia de sus países de fuentes de energías contaminantes y poco confiables mediante el uso de políticas públicas, tecnologías innovadoras y soluciones financieras.

Policy Solution

NRDC está trabajando con socios en Latinoamérica para garantizar que las soluciones climáticas que las comunidades necesitan reciban el financiamiento necesario.

Report

Reducción del carbono negro y la contaminación del aire en América Latina

Report

Agudizados por el cambio climático, es probable que los problemas del agua en la zona central de Chile se agraven aún más con el crecimiento poblacional y con la urbanización. Afortunadamente, hay soluciones.

Overview

El desierto más grande de América del Norte alberga pastizales con gran biodiversidad que almacenan grandes cantidades de carbono y contribuyen al sustento de millones de personas en la región. Sin embargo, estos pastizales están altamente amenazados por la actividad humana y un clima cambiante.

Issue Brief

NRDC está dando seguimiento al progreso de los compromisos contra el cambio climático y alentando acciones para reducir las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero.

Overview

Explora estos mapas interactivos para descubrir el riesgo actual que representa el desarrollo hidroeléctrico para al ambiente de Chile y aprender cómo ayudar a proteger la belleza natural de esta región remota.

Report

Los fondos públicos por sí solos no pueden satisfacer la magnitud de la inversión necesaria en la región para implementar el Acuerdo de París. Los bancos de inversión verde pueden ayudar a los gobiernos a acelerar el flujo de capital privado hacia soluciones climáticas.

Blog Post

El Amazonas es una región compleja y en constante evolución que contiene una riqueza natural y cultural extremadamente importante que vale la pena conservar.

Blog Post

Una prioridad climática en que América Latina puede y debe lograr mayor progreso y demostrar liderazgo es el manejo sostenible de los suelos.

Blog Post

A medida que las poblaciones en crecimiento requieren más agua, se espera que los suministros de agua potable disminuyan debido al cambio climático. El reciclaje de aguas residuales presenta una buena oportunidad en un futuro incierto.

Blog Post

La contaminación del aire es, según la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS), el riesgo ambiental más grande para la salud en las Américas. El tema del Día Internacional del Medio Ambiente este año es “Contaminación Atmosférica”, y la oportunidad para destacar la gravedad del problema no podría venir en un momento más apropiado.

Blog Post

Aproximadamente 13 millones de toneladas de plástico se vierten en los océanos del mundo cada año, amenazando la salud humana, la biodiversidad y la economía. Afortunadamente, varios países de América Latina y el Caribe están avanzando en la lucha contra la contaminación generada por los plásticos.

Blog Post

Perfeccionar el Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte (TLCAN, o NAFTA, por su sigla en inglés) ha sido una de las prioridades clave del presidente Donald Trump, siendo este, a diferencia de gran parte de los objetivos y prioridades de su administración, un objetivo compartido con el Consejo para la Defensa de Recursos Naturales (NRDC, por sus siglas en inglés). Este acuerdo de 25 años necesita ser actualizado, especialmente en temas ambientales y laborales.

NRDC in Action

For decades, NRDC has worked alongside Chileans who are fighting to save Patagonia’s wildest rivers from being yoked by massive hydroelectric dams.

Victory

How NRDC joined a small town’s fight to protect Mexico’s Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park from big resorts and other destructive development.

Victory

How NRDC helped protect the Tahuamanú Rainforest from illegal logging.

China

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China has made a serious commitment to turning its cities into healthier places to live and currently leads the world in renewable energy installation and electric vehicle penetration. But the planet’s most populous country still faces severe pollution, impacts from climate change, and other environmental challenges. The more the country uses its enormous reach to push for sustainable options, the more its residents—and the entire planet—will benefit.

NRDC has been supporting China’s sustainable development by providing technical and legal expertise for more than 20 years. Since the mid 1990s, we have been collaborating with a wide range of Chinese and international partners to facilitate exchanges and learning, develop innovative policy tools, and introduce and demonstrate best practices in energy efficiency, clean energy, pollution controls, wildlife conservation, and low-carbon urbanization.

Some of our accomplishments:

  • As the first international nonprofit to launch a clean energy program in China, NRDC helped develop many of the nation’s firsts, among them energy codes for residential and commercial buildings, a research and development program for clean vehicles, and a utility-based initiative for energy conservation.
  • Our pilot efficiency programs in Jiangsu province were so successful that they inspired the central government to issue a national requirement that all grid companies invest in similar measures.
  • China’s 13th Five-Year Plan (2016–2020) established, for the first time, a mandatory target for decreasing the share of coal in total energy consumption. This was a direct reflection of the strategy we promoted—and NRDC energy experts are now designing policies to help the country meet this goal. We’re promoting ways to add more wind and solar to the grid and bring efficiency measures to more of the country’s industries.
  • After we studied China’s supply of and demand for mercury—a neurotoxin linked to cognitive delays in children and fertility problems—we helped to shape a plan for reducing mercury in the country.
  • We are working to help clean up China’s ports, which allow ships to use the dirtiest diesel fuel, by applying the lessons of some of our successful cleanup efforts, including those at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
  • NRDC helped draft and pass many of America’s most important environmental laws, and now we are helping China fortify its environmental regulations while training legal professionals in environmental litigation and advocacy.
  • NRDC has doggedly pursued wildlife conservation and bans on the ivory trade globally. In China, we supported studies of the legal barriers to an ivory ban. In a major victory for the conservation of elephants, the Chinese government shut down its legal commercial ivory trade on December 31, 2017.

For more information about NRDC’s China program, please visit www.nrdc.cn.

Blog Post

As climate studies grow more urgent and the Trump administration continues to undermine climate action, all eyes are on the world’s biggest country—and currently its biggest polluter—to model the way forward.

NRDC in Action

JingJing Qian, director of NRDC’s China program, is bearing witness to some truly remarkable changes taking place in her home country. She’s also helping to make those changes happen.

NRDC in Action

The world’s most populous country has a new national park system, a new ban on ivory, and NRDC’s Lisa Hua to support them both.

Blog Post

While more still needs to be done, it’s clear that China has every reason to reduce emissions and promote low-carbon development in BRI countries.

Blog Post

By developing a plan to phase out oil-powered vehicles, the world’s largest vehicle market is adding critical momentum to the emerging international movement to phase out the use of internal combustion engine vehicles.

Explainer

The planet's largest carbon emitter is taking steps to brighten their future—and the world's.

Blog Post

The new target to reduce coal to 58% of total energy consumption by 2020 sets the stage for a fundamental transformation in its energy structure in the next few years.

Blog Post

By recklessly withdrawing from the Paris Agreement—opposed by the vast majority of American businesses—Trump has also handcuffed the U.S.’ ability to compete with China in the biggest market opportunity of the century: clean energy.

Blog Post

Over two-thirds of existing buildings in China are energy inefficient, accounting for about one-fourth of the country’s total CO2 emissions.

Blog Post

China’s announcement to control trade of rhino and tiger will likely result in the opposite—an out of control spike in demand, which will stimulate poaching.

Blog Post

If you could go back in time and be a part of a historical event—not be an observer, but a real part—where would you go? If you're a conservationist, the answer may be to stay put.

Policy Solution

NRDC is working with local and international partners to help reduce pollution, increase energy efficiency and clean energy, and strengthen environmental governance.

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