The World Bank is currently focusing on: Energy Access: Direct Assistance to the Poor by expanding rural and peri-urban energy access and targeting poverty reduction through multi-sectoral interventions that emphasize economic and socially productive uses. The World Bank is undertaking investment projects that promote electricity access in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Peru. With Bank assistance, there are Community Development Carbon Fund (CDCF) projects under development in a dozen countries that aim to provide improved energy services and increased water, education, and health services at the local community level. The Bank also supports advisory activities to Governments on rural electrification in Bolivia and Peru. Read more ... Energy Security: Enhancing the countries ability to meet their growing demand for energy in an efficient manner through securing access to capital and financing in resource development, supporting the efficient operation and financial sustainability of the power sector, and promoting energy efficiency initiatives. Energy security requires also improving macroeconomic & fiscal balances by explicitly linking the energy sector and macroeconomic objectives. The Programmatic Power Sector Reform Loan in the Dominican Republic aims at establishing the conditions that would permit the financial sustainability of the sector, thereby reducing subsidy requirements and improving the fiscal situation. Read more ... Market Efficiency and Governance: Promoting Good Governance & Private Sector Development by assisting the energy sector reform process through both supporting second stage reforms and ministerial and regulatory capacity building. In some cases, this involves re-thinking reform architectures based on acknowledged difficulties in attracting private sector participation. The Bank has investment projects in Brazil and the Dominican Republic that support these processes. Read more ... Renewable Energy and Environment: Protecting the Environment by building client capacity to participate in the growing global markets for energy-related environmental services and mobilizing additional resources, assisting in the structuring of transactions and promoting learning-by-doing. Projects in Ecuador and Uruguay support environmental regulation, energy sector management and energy efficiency. The Bank's carbon finance projects contribute towards global environmental objectives through their support of renewable energy. Read more ... Biofuels: Liquid biofuels made from biomass are attracting increasing interest
worldwide. Industrial countries see biofuels as a way of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the transport sector and diversifying energy sources. Developing countries see biofuels as a way to stimulate rural development, create jobs, and save foreign exchange. Both groups view biofuels as a means of increasing energy security. These concerns, taken together and highlighted by recent surges in the world oil price, have prompted a wide range of countries to consider biofuels programs. Canada, Colombia, the European Union (EU), India, Thailand, and the United States have adopted new targets, some mandatory, for increasing the contribution of biofuels to their transport fuel supplies. In Brazil, after a period of a decline in ethanol consumption, flex-fuel vehicles--capable of running on varying percentages of ethanol--are revitalizing the ethanol market. Read more... Carbon Finance: The Bank engages in Carbon Finance and supports host countries through capacity building assistance, support with the development of green investment schemes or by directly engaging in carbon finance projects (either standalone projects, or linked to an underlying Bank operation). Read more... |
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