AT A GLANCE: - The World Bank’s Environment Strategy (formulated in 2001, updated in 2007) addresses the links between the environment, poverty, and development with a particular emphasis on health, livelihoods, and the vulnerability of poor people.
- Priorities are aligned with commitments established by the global community at the Millennium Summit in 2000 and the Johannesburg Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002. They are also aligned with the Millennium Ecosystems Assessment (MEA) published in 2005.
How is the 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 89 percent of ENRM portfolio projects are currently being managed by non-environmental sectors in the Bank, indicating the extent of environmental mainstreaming. - As of mid-Fiscal Year 2008 (end December 2007), the World Bank had approved 19 projects with ENRM content amounting to $0.7 billion in commitments, representing about 9.2 percent of total Bank new lending. On average, ENRM activities have accounted for about 8 percent of total Bank new lending over the past 5 years.1
- The two largest new lending projects with ENRM themes were Niger Basin Water Resources in Africa (total loan amount: $186 million) and Sindh Water Sector Improvement Project in Pakistan (total loan amount: $150 million).
- As of mid-FY08, the total active portfolio of projects with ENRM activities amounted to $9.8 billion – representing about 10.5 percent of the total Bank portfolio. Of this, the core ENRM portfolio (projects with more than 65 percent ENRM content) amounts to $2.5 billion in commitments.
Through Advice, Technical Assistance & Training. Environmental and Natural Resources Management
New Lending FY04-08 |  |
Country Environment Analyses (CEA) and Strategic Environment Assessments (SEA) help countries to systematically evaluate their environmental priorities, the environmental implications of key policies, and their capacity to address development priorities and related environmental concerns. A review of completed Country Environmental Analyses shows that CEAs have contributed to informing policy reforms (e.g. Colombia CEA), identifying lending operations (e.g. Bangladesh, Egypt, Tunisia, Peru, Ghana CEAs), integrating environment into Country Assistance Strategies (Egypt CEA) and Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (e.g. Bangladesh CEA), informing Development Policy Lending (DPLs) (e.g. Guatemala, El Salvador and Orissa CEAs), contributing to institutional and organizational changes (e.g. Tunisia CEA) and improving donor coordination (e.g. Ghana, Egypt, Tunisia CEAs). In a period of six years, CEAs have been mainstreamed in the Bank with 38 CEAs completed, ongoing, or planned. A multi-donor Trust Fund for CEA has also been established to support preparation of CEAs. Ongoing work on SEAs is being carried out in a range of different regions and sectors, including mining, transport, trade, forestry, and urban development. The Bank is piloting ‘institutions-centered SEAs’ as a way of strengthening institutional and governance considerations into the SEA methodology. This would enhance the ability of SEA to inform development policy processes and country decision-makers in real time. It would also influence policy, sector reform, and strategic planning, through analytical work, as well as by providing a forum for dialogue among groups with a stake in related environmental and social issues including those less able to voice their concerns and needs. The pilot program would be completed with a climate change, land use, and forest SEA currently under identification. The evaluation and dissemination of results and lessons learnt from the program would be carried out between late 2008 and early 2010 with the assistance of the Environmental Economics Unit of the University of Gothenburg ( Sweden), the Swedish EIA Centre, and the Netherlands Commission of Environmental Assessment under the umbrella of the OECD DAC SEA task team. In several countries (e.g. Colombia, Tunisia, Ghana, Peru), studies analyzing costs of environmental degradation have been used to systematically prioritize environmental issues and also to raise their profile with decision makers in sector ministries, including ministries of finance. Public environmental expenditure reviews, such as the one being finalized in Namibia, have helped to document the need for a strategic increase of financial resources and improved efficiency of resources allocated to environment and tourism. More recently, studies on the impacts of climate change and the options to adapt to current and expected future weather variability have helped inform dialogue on response options. Through technical assistance and training in environmental issues, the Bank is also building environmental management capacity in partner countries. By Helping to Protect the Global Environment. Global Environment Facility (GEF ) – Since the inception of the GEF, the World Bank Group has mobilized $3.7 billion from the GEF (by mid fiscal year 2008) in programs to address biodiversity conservation, climate change, ozone depleting substances, land degradation, POPs, and international waters. In Fiscal Year 2007, some 23 new GEF projects to be implemented through the World Bank were approved representing $221 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 17 years, the Bank has received approvals for more than 650 investment and technical and institutional assistance projects worth nearly $867 million as of the end 2007. In the 2007 calendar year alone, the World Bank received project approvals totaling $66.8 million.
Carbon Finance for Development – Carbon Finance at the World Bank has expanded from a prototype engagement in the emerging trade of greenhouse gas emission reductions to an increasingly mainstream activity for supporting sustainable development. The World Bank was a pioneer in the carbon market with the $180 million Prototype Carbon Fund in 1999. Today, the World Bank manages over $2 billion across 10 carbon funds and facilities. Sixteen governments and 66 private companies from various sectors have made financial contributions to these funds. As of August 2007, emission reductions purchase agreements had been signed for 89 projects, totaling over $1.5 billion for 200 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. In September 2007, the World Bank Board of Executive Directors approved two new carbon facilities – the Carbon Partnership Facility and the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility - designed to support developing countries in their move towards lower carbon development paths. - Towards a Strategic Framework on Climate Change and Development for the World Bank Group (SFCCD) – The Strategic Framework on Climate Change and Development (SFCCD) is currently being developed and will articulate the WBG’s vision on how to integrate climate change and development challenges, without compromising growth and poverty reduction efforts. This will be done through the Bank Group’s country operations, including policy dialogue, lending, and analytical work in client countries, and through its regional and global operations . The SFCCD will broaden the Bank’s Clean Energy Investment Framework (CEIF) roadmap for accelerating investments in clean energy for the developing world by encompassing all relevant sectors, including energy, transport, urban, water, agriculture, forestry, environment, economic policy and social protection, and by further elevating adaptation as the central attribute of development confronted by changing climate. The SFCCD will benefit from close coordination with the World Development Report 2010on Climate Change and several other major analytical products. The full SFCCD will be proposed for endorsement by the World Bank’s Executive Board in September 2008 and subsequently discussed at the 2008 Annual Meetings. Consultations on the SFCCD with stakeholders will run from April through August.
Partnerships – The Bank is engaged in numerous partnerships with other development agencies, civil society, and private sector organizations. Examples include the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), which safeguards biodiversity hotspots; TerrAfrica, which works to address land degradation and increase sustainable land management throughout Sub-Saharan Africa; and the Global Partnership for Environmental Governance/PP10, which supports efforts by NGOs and governments to improve transparency in environmental decision-making. 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 World Bank became the first multilateral development bank to become carbon neutral. The World Bank’s Washington, D.C., facilities, business travel, and 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. In addition, the Bank has committed to an annual carbon emissions reduction target of 7 percent for our US based building operations – complementing a broader initiative to estimate the carbon intensity of selected lending operations. - ### - For more information, please see the website:
www.worldbank.org/environment Updated March 2008 Media Contacts:
Roger Morier, (202) 473-5675, Email: Rmorier@worldbank.org
Jeff Brez, (202) 458-7628, Email: Jbrez@worldbank.org
The approvals in FY2005 were atypically high as they included two large Environmental Development Policy Lending (DPL) projects: First Programmatic Reform Loan for Environmental Sustainability in Brazil ($503 million) and Programmatic DPL for Sustainable Development in Colombia ($150 million). |
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