International Advocacy & Action

How NRDC tackles global environmental challenges to advance progress on climate, nature, and health.

Dipa Bagai (NRDC India Managing Director) speaks during the Scaling Heat Resistance, Sustainable Cooling event held at the NRDC New York office during New York Climate Week on September 24, 2026.People left to right:Yamide Dagnet (NRDC International SVP)Dipa Bagai (NRDC India Managing Director)

Dipa Bagai, India managing director at NRDC, speaking during the Scaling Heat Resistance, Sustainable Cooling event held at the NRDC New York office during the 2026 New York Climate Week. (Left: Yamide Dagnet, senior vice president of international, NRDC) 

Credit: Radhika Chalasani for NRDC

As we confront the accelerating crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental pollution, it is clearer than ever that lasting solutions require a global outlook. Nature does not recognize country boundaries. Environmental pollution can travel through air, water, and soil, across the natural systems that underpin all life. Global warming, ecosystem degradation, and widespread exposure to toxic chemicals are driven by complex interconnected systems (e.g., energy, food, finance, trade, industry) that operate across borders. And international action has global implications, shaping decisions, opportunities, and ambition across countries and regions.  

Protecting people, nature, and wildlife requires collective ambition and coordinated action on a global scale to match the magnitude, complexity, and urgency of today’s challenges. By engaging with partners around the world, participating in multilateral processes, and applying our expertise within and across borders, NRDC helps align science, policy, and public engagement for durable and equitable environmental outcomes. This approach helps to reduce emissions and build resilience at scalewhile protecting biodiversity hot spots, preventing pollution before it spreads, and delivering benefits for communities all over the world. 

NRDC’s international work focuses on urgent challenges that present significant opportunities for transformation, cooperation, and impactful outcomes. 

A group of people standing around a solar panel that's propped up with a stick
OUR PRIORITIES

Climate change & energy systems 

Climate change is intensifying extreme weather, threatening food and water security, and undermining economic and social stability worldwide. Addressing these impacts requires rapid action to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions through a just, clean energy transition and increased investment in adaptation and resilience for communities already experiencing climate-related harms. 

This includes advancing international cooperation, policies, and technologies that reduce emissions and dependence on fossil fuels, fostering clean energy, strengthening energy and climate security, and ensuring that the transition creates healthier communities and economic opportunities. 

A clearcut area of boreal forest in Northwestern Ontario, Canada.
OUR PRIORITIES

Nature: Land, water & wildlife 

Forest loss, agricultural expansion, wildlife trafficking, overfishing, pollution, and climate change are threatening biodiversity, livelihoods, cultural heritage, and the natural systems that protect communities from climate impacts. 

NRDC works globally to protect and restore forests and marine ecosystems that are critical to planetary health and human well-being. Our priorities include defending forests against further degradation, improving ocean governance, holding global corporations accountable for their destructive policies, and halting overexploitation of species.  

An agricultural field with two people in the distance, standing under a bright, hazy sun
OUR PRIORITIES

Health & pollution 

Environmental pollution from air and water contamination, toxic chemicals, and unsafe industrial practices remains a major driver of disease and poor health worldwide and disproportionately harms low-income communities and workers. At the same time, climate change is making extreme heat a major public health threat to people around the world. 

NRDC aims to support the communities facing these problems. We work to prevent pollution at its source by strengthening environmental protections and holding governments and corporations accountable. We support efforts to reduce toxic pollution from mining and resource extraction, such as promoting mercury-free practices and stronger environmental safeguards. We work to reduce plastic pollution and toxic lead exposure to advance public health. And we collaborate with partners to build resilience through heat action planning and community preparedness to reduce exposure to dangerous temperatures.  

OUR PRIORITIES

Finance, equity & environmental justice 

Despite growing recognition of the environmental changes and impacts affecting communities, ecosystems, and economies worldwide, global financing for climate action, biodiversity protection, and public health remains far below what is needed. It also too often bypasses the communities facing the greatest harms. Socioeconomic inequities continue to shape who bears the weight of environmental costs and who benefits. But equitable processes can lead to stronger, more durable environmental outcomes and shared ownership of solutions. 

NRDC prioritizes advancing approaches that close financing gaps and center justice. This includes elevating the leadership and rights of Indigenous Peoples, addressing gender inequities, promoting intergenerational equity, and increasing green investments, especially in sustainable adaptation finance.  

A group of people in a formal conference room
OUR PRIORITIES

Governance & the future of multilateral cooperation 

Many global institutions and governance systems are struggling to keep pace with today’s overlapping, escalating crises. Rising geopolitical tensions, weakened trust in multilateral processes, and fragmentation in global cooperation threaten the collective action needed to tackle environmental challenges. 

NRDC engages in international forums to strengthen policies, standards, and accountability mechanisms, helping ensure that global agreements and engagements translate into real protections on the ground and that the voices of the people are echoed in the halls where they need to be heard. Effective multilateralism remains one of the most powerful tools for coordinating action, scaling solutions, and ensuring that no country or community is left behind. 

How we work

NRDC delivers global impact by connecting policy, science, partnerships, public engagement, and on‑the‑ground expertise. We work to drive solutions that are ambitious, effective, durable, and impactful.   

Fostering global cooperation & multilateral engagement 

NRDC advances environmental progress by strengthening cooperation among governments, civil society, the private sector, and other key stakeholders to ensure that international commitments translate into real-world outcomes. We engage with international institutions, treaties, and forums (e.g., IUCN, UNEP, UNFCCC, Minamata Convention, and more) to help shape global standards and agreements on climate, nature, and pollution.  

Coalitions & partnerships 

Lasting impact requires trusted partnerships. NRDC works alongside governments, Indigenous leaders, international and local NGOs, academic institutions, and other key groups to build coalitions aligned around shared goals. Through partnerships, we help scale solutions and build momentum across sectors and countries. NRDC also supports national coalitions and subnational actor collaboration by sharing best practices and strengthening collective voices on national and global outcomes in key forums. 

Science, research & innovation 

Science underpins everything NRDC does. Our global work seeks to connect evidence to action on a global stage, and it is informed by cutting-edge research, data analysis, and technical expertise. By generating and translating knowledge, NRDC helps decision-makers, advocates, and partners design solutions that are effective locally and credible globally. 

NRDC’s international approach is grounded in deep, place-specific engagement. By working closely with partners and communities in key regions, we tailor solutions to local contexts while connecting them to global systems and policy processes. 

Where we work

Africa

Africa is home to abundant natural resources and a growing population of young workers. With their rapidly growing influence in global markets, African countries are navigating all these intersecting factors to shape more equitable and resilient sustainable development, as well as green industrialization. Collaborating with local partners, NRDC focuses on solutions in countries that protect critical ecosystems, support climate and community resilience, and advance clean energy access. 

Asia

India and China, the two most populous countries in the world, are central to the future of global climate, energy, and environmental outcomes. NRDC works with local policymakers, researchers, communities, and civil society to accelerate clean energy adoption, environmental protection, and climate resilience.  

Europe & the United Kingdom

Europe and the United Kingdom play a significant role in shaping global markets, environmental standards, trade practices, and climate finance and policy. NRDC engages in efforts to protect northern forests, support supply chain transparency and governance, and boost investment for climate action and nature conservation.  

North America

Outside of the United States, NRDC collaborates with governments and partners in Canada and Mexico, to protect critical ecosystems, address threats from unsustainable logging and fossil fuel expansion, advance climate ambition and Indigenous-led conservation, and strengthen cross-border cooperation on energy and nature.  

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An aerial view of old growth boreal forest near Dryden in Northwestern Ontario, Canada

Canada

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For more than three decades, NRDC has helped protect some of the world’s most iconic ecosystems and support sound environmental decision making.
Buildings in the central business district of Beijing, China, lit up at sunset

China

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NRDC elevates sustainable development and wildlife conservation in one of the most populous countries in the world.
Four women in holding handfuls of harvested salt in the village of Kuda, Gujarat, India

India

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NRDC’s India program fights climate change with solutions that advance clean energy and public health.
Tecolote Beach in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico, on January 23, 2025. On December 9, 2024, in an open letter to the CEO of Houston-based fossil fuel company Mexico Pacific Limited (Mexico Pacific), NRDC announced their opposition to the company’s proposed construction of a massive liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility at Puerto Libertad in Sonora, Mexico, on the eastern shore of the Gulf of California. Called Saguaro Energia LNG (Saguaro), the project would be an industrial development anticip

Mexico

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We collaborate with partners in this region to move its nations toward clean energy while protecting wildlands, waters, and communities.