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At a Glance

• The World Bank, jointly with IFC and MIGA, is preparing a new World Bank Group (WBG) Environment Strategy, expected to be completed by December 2010. This exercise reflects the WBG’s enduring commitment to ensure that its support to client countries leads to development results that are economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable.
• Through the strategy preparation process, WBG will identify key areas in which it should engage to support its clients to more effectively address environmental priorities and move toward greater sustainability.                    
• The World Bank’s priorities are aligned with commitments established by the global community at the Millennium Summit in 2000 and the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002. They are also aligned with the Millennium Ecosystems Assessment (MEA) published in 2005.

How is the World Bank Helping Developing Countries Protect Their Environment?

By “Greening” Investments. Environmental and Natural Resource Management (ENRM) activities are increasingly being integrated into sectoral (agriculture, water sanitation, urban, etc.) projects. As much as 77 percent of the Bank’s ENRM projects are currently being managed by non-environmental sectors in the Bank, indicating the extent of environmental mainstreaming.

• As of end-FY 2009, the Bank had approved 52 projects with ENRM content amounting to US$5.1 billion in commitments. On average, ENRM activities have accounted for about 9.7 percent of total new Bank lending during the past five years.
• The two largest new lending projects with ENRM themes are: (a) First Programmatic Development Policy Loan for Sustainable Environmental Management in Brazil (total loan amount: US$1.3 billion) (b) Third Sustainable Development DPL in Colombia (total loan amount: US$450 million).
• As of end-FY09, the total active portfolio of projects with ENRM activities amounted to US$13 billion—representing about 10 percent of the total Bank portfolio. Of this, the core ENRM portfolio (projects with more than 65 percent ENRM content) amounted to US$4.5 billion in commitments.

Through Advice, Technical Assistance, and Training.  Country Environmental Analyses (CEAs) and Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEAs) help countries incorporate environmental considerations into national development and sector policies, strategies, and plans, enhancing their sustainability.  CEAs are environmental analytic tools that systematically identify the environment development priorities of a country, assess the capacity of its national and sub-national institutions with respect to the management of environmental and natural resources, and carry out an in-depth analysis of its themes and priorities. 

Completed and ongoing CEAs have contributed to a range of substantive results, such as integration of environmental issues into country assistance strategies (e.g., Egypt), Development Policy Lending operations (e.g., Indonesia, Orissa), and Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (e.g., Bangladesh). CEAs have also contributed to identifying lending operations (e.g., Peru, Bangladesh, Egypt, and Ghana) and bringing about policy and regulatory reform (e.g., Colombia).

More than 20 CEAs have been completed and 12 are ongoing (e.g., Madagascar, Philippines, Indonesia, Armenia, Jordan, and a second CEA in India). Several CEAs have also recently been initiated, including in Nicaragua, Uganda, and Lebanon. In a recent review of five years of CEAs, taking climate change into consideration and improving donor coordination with respect to CEAs have been identified as increasingly important issues.

Ongoing work on piloting institution-centered SEAs has been carried out in a range of different regions (mostly Africa and South Asia) and sectors, including mining, transport, trade, forestry, and urban development. Rich experience is being accumulated in applying institution-centered approaches to development policy lending, sector structural reforms, technical assistance, economic integration, development strategies, and large and complex development plans. In FY09, client countries in Latin America (Mexico), South Asia (India), and East Asia (Indonesia) have requested technical assistance on applying SEA approaches for incorporating climate change considerations into sector policies and planning.

The main result emerging is that although policy and planning reforms open a window of opportunity for enhancing the sustainability of country development efforts, effectively incorporating environmental considerations into strategic decision making depends on influencing an array of institutional and governance factors. It is increasingly evident that, because of the flexibility of SEA approaches and the public participation processes associated with SEA, the demand for SEA to support environmental sustainability of development policies and to manage climate change vulnerability at the policy level is likely to increase in client countries.

In response to this situation, the Bank's SEA pilot program has prioritized supporting climate change adaptation and is conducting an evaluation of the pilots in partnership with the Environmental Economics Unit of the University of Gothenburg (Sweden), the Swedish EIA Centre, and the Netherlands Commission for Environmental Assessment. The main lessons of this evaluation will inform the preparation of the Bank's new Environment Strategy.

 In several countries (e.g., Colombia, Tunisia, Ghana, Peru, Namibia), studies analyzing the costs of environmental degradation undertaken as part of Country Environmental Analyses were used to systematically prioritize environmental issues and to raise their profiles with decision makers in sector ministries, including ministries of finance. More recently, studies on the impacts of climate change and the options to mitigate the change and to adapt to current and expected future weather variability have helped inform dialogue on response options (e.g., the Philippines, Peru, Colombia, Belarus, and Egypt).

By Helping Protect the Global Environment

At the 2008 Annual Meetings, the Development Committee endorsed the World Bank Group Strategic Framework on Development and Climate Change. This Framework aims to improve understanding of how development interacts with climate impacts, mitigation, and adaptation, and explores the implications for the work of the WBG as a whole.

Adaptation to climate variability and change will be at the center of WBG support to developing countries, because it is critical to sustaining and furthering development gains. Building on the WBG’s core mandate and competencies, the Framework, produced through extensive consultations with a full range of stakeholders, will help the International Development Association (IDA), International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), IFC, and MIGA increase the effectiveness and benefits of their support to developing countries.

It is important to stress that resources will not be diverted from financing core development needs. The WBG will focus on helping its clients acquire additional financial resources, technology, technical assistance, and knowledge for adaptation and mitigation—and use them well in their national, regional, and local development programs with mitigation and/or adaptation co-benefits. As a major funder of biodiversity conservation globally, the Bank is promoting ecosystem-based solutions as one strategy to address climate change and adaptation.

The Climate Investment Funds (CIF), approved by the Bank’s Board of Directors in July 2008, have received commitments from donors exceeding US$6 billion.  Comprising two distinct funds, the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) and the Strategic Climate Fund (SCF), the CIFs utilize the skills and capabilities of the multilateral development banks (MDBs) to deliver financing at significant scale to unleash the potential of the public and private sectors to address climate change, and to complement other multilateral financial mechanisms, such as the Global Environment Facility and the Adaptation Fund. 

As of June 2009, the CTF Trust Fund Committee has endorsed investment plans for Egypt, Mexico, and Turkey with total commitments of more than US$1 billion. Nine countries have been invited to participate in the Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR), the first program under the SCF, and the development of two regional programs have been approved by the PPCR Sub-Committee.  Under the SCF, designs for the Program for Scaling Up Renewable Energy in Low Income Countries (SREP) and the Forest Investment Program (FIP) have been approved and pledging initiated.

Carbon Finance for Development.  Since the first of the World Bank’s carbon funds, the Prototype Carbon Fund, was conceived in the late 1990s, carbon finance has entered a stage of maturity after more than a decade of operations by the Bank’s carbon funds.  There are now many well-established funds and facilities, with another two well underway in 2009. Today, the Bank manages more than US$2.5 billion across its carbon funds and facilities. A collaborative and inclusive approach with fund participants, donors, and host countries, is key to building Bank carbon finance partnerships. Sixteen governments and 66 private companies from various sectors have made financial contributions to these funds and facilities. In 2008, the Bank established two new carbon facilities, the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD); and the Carbon Partnership Facility (CPF) for scaling up the use of carbon finance to accelerate mitigation activities. 

Global Environment Facility (GEF).  Since the inception of the GEF, the WBG has mobilized US$4.08 billion from the GEF (as of the end FY09) in programs to address biodiversity conservation, climate change, ozone-depleting substances, land degradation, and Persistent Organic Pollutants. These latter are highly toxic, highly stable compounds causing an array of adverse effects, notably death, disease, and birth defects among humans and animals. They are either used as pesticides, consumed by industry, or generated unintentionally as byproducts of various industrial/combustion processes, and international waters.  In FY09, some 28 new GEF projects to be implemented through the Bank were approved, representing US$187 million in GEF financing.

Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol (MLF).  The MLF helps developing countries to eliminate the production and consumption of ozone-depleting chemicals. As an MLF implementing agency for the past 18 years, the Bank has received approvals for more than 680 investment and technical and institutional assistance projects worth more than US$921 million as of end-August 2009. Since inception of its MP program, the Bank has assisted countries in eliminating the consumption and production of more than 280,000 ODP tons of ozone-depleting substances and, in doing so, to fulfill their Montreal Protocol obligations. The bulk of the phase-out achieved consists of halons and CFCs—substances that must be completely phased out in developing countries by January 1, 2010.

Partnerships.  The Bank is engaged in numerous partnerships with other development agencies, civil society, and private sector organizations. Recent partnerships launched include the Save Your Logo campaign, The Global Tiger Initiative, and the Ecosystem-Based Adaptation working group.

The Save Your Logo Campaign leverages private sector and multi-stakeholder engagement for dramatically expanding for threatened species. While focusing on particularly threatened species, this initiative will also target those animals used for branding and in logos of global corporations.  Partners include the Bank, the GEF, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the government of France, and the Noé Institute, a Belgian NGO.

This effort complements and expands the Bank commitment to biodiversity conversation, including the Global Tiger Initiative, which President Robert Zoellick launched in June 2008. The Global Tiger Initiative is aimed at improving global biodiversity management practices and skills through better conservation of wild tigers and their habitats. Partners include the International Tiger Coalition (an alliance of 38 organizations representing more than 100 organizations across the globe), the scientific community, and the GEF.  The 2010 Global Tiger Summit will cement political commitments to tiger conservation at the highest levels and flag specific conservation programs in the tiger-range countries.

Lastly, an informal technical partnership between the Bank, IUCN, Conservation International (CI), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and the Ramsar Convention has emerged to share both methodological advances as well as project applications in ecosystem-based adaptation approaches to climate change adaptation across natural resource management ecosystems. This informal partnership, inclusive also of client partnerships, is facilitating an “even playing field” of technical preparation for Copenhagen discussions.

In-House Efforts.  In 2006, as part of its commitment to environmental and social responsibility, and to contribute to efforts aimed at addressing climate change, the Bank became the first multilateral development bank to become carbon neutral at its headquarter operations. The Bank’s Washington, D.C., corporate facilities, business travel, and the conference facilities, travel, and hotels for delegates associated with the Spring and Annual Meetings are carbon neutral through a strategy of energy efficiency and reduction measures, carbon offsetting, and green power purchases.

This year, under the leadership of the Bank’s General Services Department, the Bank saved more than US$250,000 in electricity costs through enhancements and upgrades to the building mechanical and electrical infrastructure and efficient equipment operation. In addition, the second inventory of carbon emissions associated with WBG country offices was compiled, and a new online carbon footprint data management system was developed for use in FY10.

For more information, please see: www.worldbank.org/environment.

Media Contacts:

Jeff Brez, (202) 458-7628, jbrez@worldbank.org

Robert Bisset, (202) 458-5191, rbisset@worldbank.org

Roger Morier, (202) 473-5675, rmorier@worldbank.org

Updated September 2009