Abstract

This Country Environmental Analysis (CEA) has been developed by the World Bank in cooperation with the Government of Jordan. It aims to integrate environment into development and poverty reduction priorities. The CEA will be a vital instrument for designing Jordans future policies, by integrating the economic policy tools in our decision making processes. As the latest economic crises and its implications have shown, an economic model that is based on consumption alone cannot be sustained; accordingly many countries identified the need to green their economics as the base for sustainable growth and development. Jordans green economic initiative will enhance social integration, economic growth an environmental sustainability within one focused, measured and stable economic plan. Jordan is a small country that is rich in human capital; the green journey will be a twenty years program to retrofit our infrastructure, to become energy, water and resource efficient. The recommendations identified in this document will be the main drivers for the environmental policies in the country. The issue of adequate incentives for better quantity management clearly remains important, but is not addressed in this report. After the national agenda was established, it appears that the reduction of water related subsidies and the creation of incentives for allocating water to higher value added uses are being recognized as necessities that public policies will address in the future.

Abstract

This report, supported by the energy sector management assistance program (ESMAP), applies the tool for the rapid assessment of city energy (TRACE) to examine energy use in León, México. This study is one of three requested and conducted in 2013 by the World Bank Latin America and the Caribbean energy unit to begin a dialogue on energy efficiency (EE) potential in Latin America and Caribbean cities. In Puebla and León, TRACE helped the Mexican Secretary of Energy (SENER) develop an urban EE strategy. TRACE is a simple, practical tool for making rapid assessments of municipal energy use. It helps prioritize sectors that have the potential to save significant amounts of energy and identifies appropriate EE measures in six sectors - transport, municipal buildings, wastewater, streetlights, solid waste, and power and heat. Globally, the six are often managed by the cities which have substantial influence over public utility services. The study looked at six areas to determine the three that have the greatest savings potential and where the city has a significant degree of control: streetlights, solid waste, and municipal buildings.

Abstract

The main objective of the report is to analyze the current greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventory process in Romania, and provide recommendations for improving the system in order to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of inventory development in compliance with United Nations framework convention on climate change (UNFCCC) and European Union (EU) requirements, including emissions forecasting provisions. This report describes the GHG inventory process and its history, analyzes the legal framework, documents and information provisions, and flows related to making the inventory together with identifying the potential adjustments for improvement, assess reporting entities and correlation mechanisms to economic dynamics, in terms of completeness, coherence, response time constant to changes in the number of companies' impact on data reporting, and provides recommendations on the possibility to improve the inventory-making process in order to meet the requirements of emission projections. The report is organized into seven sections as follows: section one provides a general introduction to GHG inventories. Section two examines the processes and procedures used in the present GHG inventory system in Romania and the alignment of this system with international frameworks including the framework for the development of environmental statistics (FDES) and the intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) schematic framework. Section three elaborates the challenges with the existing greenhouse inventory process including data gaps and weaknesses in the statistical infrastructure. Section four looks at the international and national legal requirements for greenhouse gas inventories. Section five provides analysis on the flow of information and the specific verification points to ensure data consistency and coherence. Section six provides a number of recommendations and concludes in section seven with a summary of key recommendations.

Abstract

The primary objective of the Southern Gobi Regional Environmental Assessment (REA) is to provide guidance for sustainable management of environmental resources in the future development of the Southern Gobi Region (SGR), development that will be led by rapid expansion of mining. The REA defines two development scenarios-a base-case and a high case-and explores their direct and indirect impacts on the natural environment, taking into account the opportunities, constraints, and vulnerabilities of the Gobi natural systems; the individual and cumulative direct environmental impacts and potential indirect impacts of the planned development; and, at a general level, the institutional capacity to manage the impacts. The REA target audience includes government officials at central, regional, and local levels; private sector investors and the consultants who are engaged for project design and environmental impact assessment; development finance organizations; and Mongolian civil society. This report was discussed in draft form at stakeholder workshops held in Ulaanbaatar and Dalanzagdad in April 2009 and has been revised to reflect comments received. Thanks are due to all those who joined those discussions. The report draws on information from workshops held in Mongolia, in May, September, and October 2008, and a field mission to the Southern Gobi Region in November 2008. Other information was obtained from various mining companies in Mongolia including Ivanhoe mines Mongolia, Inc., and its consultant Eco Trade; Rio Tinto; Energy Resources LLC; and South Gobi Sands.