Publications

Environment Matters: Rio+20 
Environment Matters, the annual review on the environment by the World Bank Group, highlights the environmental research, accomplishments, and challenges of the Bank in the past year. Environment Matters 2012 takes a retrospective look at the World Bank Group’s environmental efforts since the first Rio Summit.

Mitigating Climate Change through Restoration and Management of Coastal Wetlands and Near-shore Marine Ecosystems
This report builds on these and other efforts to bring to light the important carbon sequestration potential of coastal wetlands, and the significant and largely unaccounted for GHG emissions resulting from the disturbance, drainage, and conversion of these natural coastal carbon sinks for agriculture, tourism and other coastal development.

Quantifying Carbon and Distributional Benefits of Renewable Energy Programs (PDF, 904 KB) quantifies the carbon and distributional benefits of solar home systems (SHS) programs in Bangladesh. Three key findings: (1) dissemination of SHS brings about significant carbon benefits; (2) SHS subsidies are progressive when the program is geographically targeted, (3) SHS has market potential in many rural areas if micro-credit schemes are made available.

Assessment of the Risk of Amazon Dieback (PDF, 9.6 MB)

The goal of this study is to assist in understanding the risk of a potential reduction in biomass density in the Amazon basin induced by climate change impacts and its implications. Click to download a pdf or a book widget.

Modeling the Impact of Climate Change on Global Hydrology and Water Availability presents findings from computer modeling of the impacts of potential climate change on hydrology and water availability (that is, changes in runoff, basin yield, and flooding). The World Bank recognizes water as a key affected sector, and potential strategies for adapting to climate change have become central to client country dialogue and investment programs.

The Changing Wealth of Nations
Close to one third of the wealth of low-income countries comes from their “natural capital” which includes forests, protected areas, agricultural lands, energy and minerals.

Strategic Environmental Assessment in Policy and Sector ReformAcknowledging that sector reform is a unique opportunity for major policy and institutional changes, the note argues for policy SEA as a proactive, systemic, and strategic approach that promotes environmental and social sustainability of growth-oriented reforms (green growth). Click here to read the related Environment Note.

The first three editions of Development, Climate, and Finance Issues Briefs provide just-in-time knowledge and analysis on key issues of interest for climate finance practitioners. The series draws on the World Bank’s capacity and development finance experience to analyze climate finance issues through the perspective of development imperatives.

Economic Evaluation of Climate Change Adaptation Projects: Approaches for the Agricultural Sector and Beyond (PDF 3.9 MB)
This report identifies key challenges and solutions for carrying out project-level economic analysis of adaptation to climate change, both stand-alone and integrated into broader development projects.

Beyond the Sum of Its Parts: Combining Financial Instruments to Support Low-Carbon Development (PDF, 3.9 MB)
The goal of this report is to provide greater information and clarity on WBG climate financing instruments and to draw lessons for the broader development community on how resources from different climate financing instruments can be combined for expanded impact, increased leverage,and enhanced efficiency.

Monitoring Climate Finance and ODA (PDF, 1.7 MB)
The first part of this report focuses on tracking, monitoring, and reporting various types of flows, primarily from ODA and other public sources but also from
private sources.The next part of the report focuses on possible ways of tracking additionality in ODA flows, with the aim of stimulating a discussion within the WBG and its partners on this issue.