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This analytical report aims to raise awareness of the various types of energy subsidies, their size and impact and the direct relationship with climate change and sustainable development. It summarises, in non-technical language, the issues and challenges in removing or modifying subsidies on energy that undermine the pursuit of sustainable development.

This technical document includes the first of a series of evaluations that seeks lessons from the World Bank Group’s experience on how to carve out a sustainable growth path. It assesses the World Bank experience with key win-win policies in the energy sector: removal of energy subsidies and promotion of end- use energy efficiency.

This technical document analyzes the claims of technology transfer made by project participants in the project design documents for 3296 registered and proposed CDM projects. Roughly 36% of the projects accounting for 59% of the annual emission reductions claim to involve technology transfer. Among other findings, the report observes that technology transfer is more common for larger projects and projects with foreign participants; technology transfer is very heterogeneous across project types and usually involves both knowledge and equipment; and the technology originates mostly from Japan, Germany, the USA, France, and Great Britain.

The technical document asseses the financial environment, project development and finance capacities, and investor interest of the participating countries (Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kazakhstan, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Ukraine) of the Financing Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Investments for Climate Change Mitigation (FEEI) project, as well as business development course programme to provide necessary capacity-building. The FEEI project aims at developing investment projects and strengthening capacities for development of energy efficiency; providing assistance to national and municipal authorities to introduce reforms needed to support investment projects; and supporting banks and commercial companies to invest in these projects through professionally managed investment funds.

This analytical report explores how public policy can change to better help people cope with new or worsened risks, how land and water management must adapt to better protect a threatened natural environment while feeding an expanding and more prosperous population, and how energy systems will need to be transformed. It also examines how to integrate development realities into climate policy ─ in international agreements, in instruments to generate carbon finance, and in steps to promote innovation and the diffusion of new technologies.

This analytical report underlines that Marshlands area in Iraq is currently subject to a series of threats, including upstream water management, climate change, competition over land and resources, economic development and demographic pressure. According to the report, to address those threats a policy framework should be developed that enables the sustainable development of the Marshlands and addresses trade-offs among current and future uses of the Marshlands, such as those between agricultural production and water quality, land use and biodiversity, development of oil industry water use and aquatic biodiversity.

This manual is intended to serve as a starting point for mainstreaming climate change education into curricula lesson plans and programs. Aimed towards education planners and practitioners, the guidebook is designed to provide support in developing the understanding of the science of climate change, observed and anticipated impacts, and possible responses. It also covers the impacts on society, including poverty, health, migration, gender and ethics. It includes a section on responding to climate change, focusing on mitigation and adaptation, as well as international responses.

This manual provides practical, step-by-step guidance on how governments and other national actors can mainstream climate change adaptation into development planning as part of broader mainstreaming efforts. The guide draws on substantial experience and lessons learned by the UNDP-UNEP Poverty-Environment Initiative in working with governments to integrate environmental management for pro-poor economic growth and development into national development planning and decision-making.

This analytical report was prepared to provide a snapshot of how disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA) are undertaken and integrated in the Asia Pacific region. It does so by taking stock of past and ongoing regional initiatives and by looking into the role of certain organizations in the implementation process. It also discusses key developments in three areas—political, policy and institutional—which are instrumental in facilitating the integration of DRR and CCA agendas in the region. Concluding remarks and next steps to push the integration forward are presented in the last section.

This analytical report outlines the different types of value that forests have, and summarizes policy and market approaches that can be used for sustainable forest management. Forests provide public good such as water and carbon regulation as well as tradeable goods such as timber, fibre, biomass and non-timber forest products that are an important part of the green economy. They also act as a source of livelihood, natural insurance, adaptation, employment and health services. Focusing on forests helps draw attention to the importance of creating a green economy at the local, regional and global levels.

This technical document analyzes existing renewable energy schemes supporting concentrated solar power (CSP) and proposes measures to scale up CSP promotion. It highlights the potential of CSP technologies to scale up renewable energy at the utility level, diversifying the generation portfolio mix, powering development, and mitigating climate change. It portrays recent experiences in Spain and the US showing that CST could become a key renewable energy technology that is able to provide an alternative to conventional thermal power generation based on the central utility model. It also evaluates the effectiveness of existing schemes in Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, India and South Africa.

This technical document reviews the current knowledge on the impacts of meteorological, climatological, hydrological, geophysical and anthropogenic disturbances on forests. It also states that forest conditions can influence the impact of disturbances as well, as when degradation of mangroves increases the damage caused by storm surges or tsunamis. The document recommends the use of adaptive forest management to protect forest resources against increasing abiotic disturbances, and calls for the use of strategies such as species diversification, windbreaks and mixed cropping patterns to enhance ecosystem resilience, as well as selective planting.

This document covers issues related to energy efficiency in the electricity sector in ESCWA member countries. It outlines the current situation in ESCWA Member countries, explains how to improve the efficiency of electricity production, and illustrates how to benefit economically by reducing technical losses.

This flyer discusses the importance of biodiversity. It also presents its major threats and the Convention on Biological Diversity, an international legally-binding treaty which aims to conserve biodiversity and promote its sustainable use and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources. It also introduces other initiatives that support biodiversity conservation and highlights the need to promote biodiversity-inclusive impact assessment tools.

This analytical report addresses the issue of transport for sustainable development in the Arab region. It includes the results of a questionnaire developed by United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) on sustainable transport in 10 Arab countries. The report provides an overview of the status of the transport sector in the region, with a particular focus on greenhouse gas emissions, and reviews the measures, means and options for achieving its sustainability. It also presents the achievements observed and the challenges arising during the move towards promoting a sustainable transport sector in the respective countries. It finally identifies a set of priority areas for future action.

This technical document examines the opportunities and constraints associated with the development of second-generation biofuels in the ESCWA region, based on a review of existing environmentally sound technologies that can be accessed by small and medium-sized enterprises. The study presents country case studies based on financial and environmental assessments and analyses agricultural waste generated by three sectors important to the region, namely the olive oil, sugar (from sugar cane and sugar beet) and dairy industries. It also offers a series of recommendations aimed at assisting decision makers and entrepreneurs in pursuing the development of second-generation biofuels using environmentally sound technologies.

Produced in response to the recommendations made in the fifth session of the Committee on Energy, this analytical report also fulfils the mandates of the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development. It assesses energy efficiency and energy conservation opportunities in the field of oil and natural gas production, including current trends, technologies from exploration to transport and specific case studies from selected countries in the region. Given their impact on climate change, measures to reduce the adverse effects of greenhouse gas emissions in selected member countries are also analysed.

This analytical report is the second volume of a two-part study on the use energy efficiency and cleaner fossil fuels in the ESCWA region. This study focuses on current specifications, with comparisons to international norms, of gasoline, diesel and fuel oil; on measures adopted for improving the quality of such fuels and for reducing emissions, particularly the elimination of lead from gasoline, and the reduction of sulphur in gasoline and diesel; on expected economic and environmental benefits of using cleaner fossil fuels; and on barriers facing the production and use of cleaner fuels. It advises that there is a strong need to revise and modify the fuel specifications in the region to match international norms.

This analytical report is the first volume of a two-part study assessing the role of the industrial sector in the national economies of the ESCWA region; current energy consumption trends in selected energy-intensive industries; and economically feasible options for improving energy efficiency in these industries. The study assesses energy consumption in several sectors, including the cement industry, steel industry, fertilizer manufacturing and glass manufacturing. It highlights that in order to improve energy efficiency, the industrial sector in the region can benefit from a number of international donor agencies related to upgrading production technologies.

This technical document identifies areas of opportunity in trade and investment for regional economies, including trade and investment in climate-smart goods and technologies (CSGTs), and offers policy actions to turn those opportunities into reality. It highlights the need for additional annual regional investments of US$600 billion up to 2050, to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and provide business opportunities to develop and export new goods and services in the areas of water, energy and resource efficiency. The report notes that China, Japan and the Republic of Korea are currently leading the development and use of CSGTs, and recommends that other countries follow by integrating with regional climate-smart value chains.