About the Program:

Mitigating climate change and halting biodiversity loss will require transformational change across nearly all systems — from how we generate electricity and move goods around the world to how we feed a growing population and manage the world’s terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems. To ensure that these transitions are just, broader shifts toward good governance, improved social inclusion and equity, and new economic paradigms must also occur — all within the next three decades. To help accelerate these rapid, far-reaching transformations, the Systems Change Lab will monitor systems change globally. The Lab will join forces with leading data providers to build an open-data that will enable everyone, everywhere to see a complete picture of progress: which shifts are accelerating, stalling, or heading in the wrong direction entirely, as well as key conditions that enable these changes. The Lab will also produce complementary annual reports that assess global progress made toward accelerating transformations.

This position is fully remote.

What you will do:

WRI’s climate data team seeks a data intern to work with a dynamic team of researchers developing Systems Change Lab. You will conduct data research, collection, and analysis on a variety of systems shift across sectors. You will be a key part of the growing Systems Change Lab team and will also have the opportunity to work closely with WRI’s partner organizations. You will be supported by the Systems Change Lab research team, which includes a Research Analyst and a Senior Data Associate. You will report to Yuke Kirana, a Research Analyst with WRI’s Global Climate Program.

Internship Learning Outcomes:

You will gain experience in the following areas:

• Participate in meetings with researchers to understand the concepts of what they want to track and how they could be turned into specific indicators.
• Identify, process, and assess appropriate targets, indicators, and datasets to be featured on the Lab’s data platform that can track global progress made in accelerating the transformational changes across systems that are required to hold global warming to 1.5°C and halt biodiversity loss.
• Communicate with data providers and assess the most relevant datasets to use for a variety of indicators, classify them by openness, completeness, transparency, maintenance, and ease of including them in the Systems Change Lab. Coordinate with Systems Change Lab colleagues to review your findings.
• Prepare data file to be uploaded on the Systems Change Lab website and document the process, ensuring data manipulation steps are reproducible from the raw data files.
• Review front-end presentation of the data files (charts) and adjust the data files, metadata files accordingly.
• Monitor and track existing data sources to update datasets for the launched systems.

What you will need:

• Pursuing or completed a bachelor’s or master’s degree.
• Some familiarity with environmental topics, for example climate change mitigation, adaptation, forests, land, freshwater, or related topics.
• Research, data analysis and quantitative skills.
• Experience with data analysis, for example with Excel.
• Demonstrated ability to work both independently as well as part of a team.

Compensation

The pay range for this internship opportunity is $20/ hour for undergrads and $22/ hour for graduates.

Length of Contract:

This is a full-time, 3-month internship with a flexible start and end date.

Location:

• This is a remote-based internship with the option to work out of the Washington D.C. office once it reopens.
• WRI will provide a laptop for the duration of your internship.

How to Apply:

Please submit a resume with a cover letter by June 25, 2023. Applicants must apply through the WRI Careers portal to be considered.

About Us: Founded in 1982, World Resources Institute (WRI) is an independent, nonprofit global research organization that turns big ideas into action at the nexus of environment, economic opportunity, and human well-being. We are working to address seven critical challenges that the world must overcome this decade to secure a sustainable future for people and the planet: climate change, energy, food, forests, water, sustainable cities, and the ocean. WRI has a global staff of over 1,800 people with work spanning 60 countries. We have offices in Africa, Brazil, China, Europe, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Colombia and the United States, as well as a growing presence in other countries and regions.

The foundation of our work is delivering high-quality research, data, maps, and analysis to solve the world’s greatest environment and international development challenges and improve people’s lives. We work with leaders in government, business, and civil society to drive ambitious action and create change on the ground. Equally important, we bring together partners to develop breakthrough ideas and scale-up solutions for far-reaching, enduring impact.

Internships at WRI are learning experiences designed for current students, recent graduates, and other candidates who wish to gain knowledge about a specific area of our work. We strive to attract diverse, intellectually driven candidates who have a passion for sustainability and development. WRI provides many internship opportunities throughout the year in all our programs.

WRI is committed to advancing gender, racial, and social equity for human well-being in our mission and applies this principle to our organizational and programmatic practices.

Our mission and values:

WRI’s mission is to move human society to live in ways that protect Earth’s environment and its capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations.

Our values are shared ideals that bind us together: Integrity, Innovation, Urgency, Independence, Respect.