Abstract

Despite being a basic tool for decision-making about the implementation and operation of enterprises with potential negative impacts on the environment, Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) still facechallenges to its consolidation as an effective tool for achieving sustainable development. This study seeks to evaluate the EIAs available in the digital platforms of both federal and state agencies, with afocus on their development (based on regulatory laws), as well as to understand the perspectives of the professionals involved in the drafting and assessment of EIAs. A total of 151 EIA were analyzed and 27 questionnaires were applied to professional EIA drafters and evaluators. EIAs display as their main positive features a predominant authorship by multidisciplinary teams, while their main deficiency liesin their impact evaluations (including the valuation, significance and analysis of cumulative and synergistic impacts). Survey participants pointed out as potential improvement areas the phases of design, preparation, evaluation and implementation of EIAs. Document type: Part of book or chapter of book

Abstract

This report has been prepared by the World Bank for the Government of Romania as an output of the World Bank advisory services program on climate change and low-carbon green growth in Romania. In response to the request, the World Bank quickly mobilized a team of sectoral and climate change (CC) specialists and conducted rapid assessments in six sectors - energy, transport, urban, water, agriculture, and forestry, which were pre-identified by both the Government of Romania and the World Bank as areas significant to emission mitigation and or adaptation to CC. The objective of rapid assessments was to quickly evaluate climate risks and identify CC-related investment priorities and necessary implementation support for the 2014-2020 operational programs. This document is the stocktaking report of component A1. It provides an introductory cover to the literature on CC, baseline for Romania, institutional review of Romania and key European Union (EU) requirements, as well as available data sets that were identified in the given short-time span. Its purpose is to support the government as a first stock of key climate and green growth issues for Romania and summarize the current situation. The report is structured as follows: section one gives introduction, section two provides the sectoral summary on the country background and characteristics. Section three provides the baseline for the CC and green growth challenges in Romania. Relevant climate dimensions of Europe 2020 and existing EU regulations and policies related to climate change are summarized in section four. Section five provides an overview of national strategies, regulatory framework, and organizational setup for addressing CC in Romania. Background information on the Romania 2014-2020 European structural and investment funds (ESIF) programming and CC related aspects in the forthcoming ESIF programming report are covered in section six. Finally, section seven provides a CC relevant bibliography for Romania that may serve as a tool for referring to key literature in the field.

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.