Karin Shepardson
Program Manager
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Strategic Documents and Policies The new Environment strategy (2012-2022) recognizes that despite the progress made in reducing global poverty, there has been significantly less progress in managing the environment sustainably. Pollution, overexploitation of fish stocks, biodiversity loss, and overuse of water and land increasingly threaten countries' development efforts. The immediate and long-term consequences of climate change, from a warmer planet to more-acidic oceans, further threaten progress on poverty reduction and development. The current economic model, driven by unsustainable patterns of growth and consumption, is clearly putting too much pressure on an already stretched environment. Current unsustainable and inefficient growth patterns highlight the need for inclusive green growth.
Biodiversity Roadmap. The purpose of this Roadmap is to outline strategic priority actions for the World Bank Group (WBG) to support its clients in their quest to eliminate extreme poverty by 2030 and boost shared prosperity through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. To maximize impact, the WBG will focus its investments in biodiversity in four key areas: (1) addressing policy failures; (2) enhancing environmental governance and public sector capacity; (3) building resilience through investing in natural infrastructure across landscapes; and (4) generating financial flows. The WBG proposes a series of concrete institutional steps to support clients in developing solutions based by: (1) mainstreaming biodiversity across sectors; (2) engaging upstream in investments; and (3) leveraging its knowledge and skills across the whole WBG.
WBG Agriculture Action Plan 2013-2015. "The World Bank Group’s Agriculture Action Plan for Fiscal Years 2013-15. In combination with the FY2010-12 Agriculture Action Plan, it will result in a continuous six year period of operationalizing the World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development. The Agriculture Action Plan FY2013-15 outlines the continuation of a scaled-up World Bank Group commitment to agriculture and related sectors, projected at between $8 billion to $10 billion annually over the next three years. Scaled-up support is needed to meet the World Bank Group goals of reducing poverty, increasing shared prosperity, and promoting environmental sustainability. The predominant focus continues to be on raising agricultural productivity and resilience, especially for smallholder farmers. More emphasis will be given to: climate-smart agriculture, private sector responses, longer-term risk management, gender mainstreaming, nutrition, and landscape approaches to farming and to land use more generally. The approach addresses an evolving and volatile context with a long-term focus on growth and sustainability, and the mix of our support across and within countries will continue to be guided by the strategic insights in the World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development.
Water Resources Sector Strategy 2003. This is an official webpage of the WBG devoted to the Water resources. The Water Strategy for the WB was developed in 2003. As of today the WBG in water sector is focused on the following topics: Ensuring poor people are included, Deliver Cutting-Edge Knowledge, and Securing sustainable financing for the Water sector
Review and Update of the World Bank Safeguard Policies. On July 30, 2014 the World Bank Board’s Executive Committee on Development Effectiveness (CODE) authorized the release of a proposal document for consultation purposes to seek feedback on its content. It has not endorsed the content of the draft, and CODE and the Board will consider the proposed document following such consultations. A background paper was developed for CODE’s discussion of the proposed framework
Performance Standards on Environmental and Social Sustainability, January 1, 2012. The Performance Standards are directed towards clients, providing guidance on how to identify risks and impacts, and are designed to help avoid, mitigate, and manage risks and impacts as a way of doing business in a sustainable way, including stakeholder engagement and disclosure obligations of the client in relation to project-level activities. In the case of its direct investments (including project and corporate finance provided through financial intermediaries), IFC requires its clients to apply the Performance Standards to manage environmental and social risks and impacts so that development opportunities are enhanced.
IFC Sustainability Framework - Effective January 1, 2012. IFC’s Sustainability Framework articulates the Corporation’s strategic commitment to sustainable development, and is an integral part of IFC’s approach to risk management. It consists of: the Policy on Environmental and Social Sustainability, which defines IFC's commitments to environmental and social sustainability; the Performance Standards, which define clients' responsibilities for managing their environmental and social risks; the Access to Information Policy, which articulates IFC's commitment to transparency.
Sector Profiles Sustainable Development. The World Bank Group integrates the principles of sustainable development into its work with clients across all sectors and regions. Those principles are also at the heart of the World Bank Group’s mission statement released in 2013 and are aligned with its overarching goals to end extreme poverty and promote share prosperity: “Ending extreme poverty within a generation and promoting shared prosperity must be achieved in such a way as to be sustainable over time and across generations. This requires promoting environmental, social, and fiscal sustainability. We need to secure the long-term future of our planet and its resources so future generations do not find themselves in a wasteland. We also must aim for sustained social inclusion and limit the size of economic debt inherited by future generations.”
Environment at the WBG. The webpage provides an overview of the WBG acitivities, strategy, programs and projects in Environment.
WB Biodiversity - status. The World Bank works with countries to put policies in place so that biodiversity is valued as a key driver of sustainable development. We help countries improve their administration to better conserve and sustainably use their biodiversity. We invest in those aspects of biodiversity and ecosystem services—such as watershed management and protected areas—that help countries achieve their development goals. We also help countries find ways to generate revenues from biodiversity—including through tourism or payments for environmental services—that will cover the cost of managing their biodiversity and improve economies.
Oceans: Sector Results Profile and Relevant Documents . World Bank investments between 2007 and 2013 have supported developing coastal and island countries in improving the health of their ocean environments, and enhancing the value of ecosystem services they provide to local and global economies. These investments focus on strengthening country institutions for managing ocean resources and use, in particular the transition to more sustainable fisheries, establishing coastal and marine protected areas, waste management and infrastructure, and implementing integrated coastal and marine ecosystem management.
WB Water Sector page
Natural Capital Accounting. The World Bank Group leads a partnership to advance natural capital accounting internationally. The Wealth Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) partnership aims to promote sustainable development by ensuring that natural resources are mainstreamed into development planning and national economic accounts. WAVES has the following objectives: - Help countries adopt and implement accounts that are relevant for policies and compile a body of experience.
- Develop an ecosystem accounting methodology.
- Establish a global platform for training and knowledge sharing.
- Build international consensus around natural capital accounting.
The Program on Forests. The Program on Forests (PROFOR) was created in 1997 to support in-depth analysis, innovative processes and knowledge-sharing and dialogue, in the belief that sound forest policy can lead to better outcomes on issues ranging from livelihoods and financing, to illegal logging, biodiversity and climate change. Since 2002, the program has been managed by a core team based at the World Bank, with support from multiple donors. PROFOR encourages a big-picture approach to forest conservation and management in developing countries, with a particular focus on four themes: Livelihoods, Governance, Financing Sustainable Forestry Management, Cross sectoral work.
Regional Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (FLEG) Initiatives. Ministerial forest law enforcement and governance initiatives created the political “space” at national and regional levels to address the complex and politically sensitive issues related to illegal logging. Co-hosted by both “producer” and “consumer” governments and the World Bank, and in partnership with major stakeholders from civil society and the private sector, these ministerial-level political processes have aimed to mobilize international commitment from both producer, consumer and donor governments to increase efforts to combat illegal logging as well as the associated trade and corruption in the forest sector.
The first regional Ministerial Conference on Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (FLEG) took place in the East Asia and Pacific region in September 2001 in Bali, Indonesia. Subsequently, a ministerial process was instigated in Africa (Ministerial Conference, October 2003, Yaoundé, Cameroon) and Europe and North Asia (Ministerial Conference, St. Petersburg, Russia, November 2005).
Fish to 2030. This report analyzes global prospects for fisheries and aquaculture. The World Bank Group (WBG) Agriculture Action Plan 2013-15 summarizes critical challenges facing the global food and agriculture sector. An ever-increasing global population necessitates adequate food and nutrition for the growing population through increased production and reduced waste. Production increase must occur in a context where resources necessary for food production, such as land and water, are even scarcer in a more crowded world, and thus the sector needs to be far more efficient in utilizing productive resources. The important issues addressed herein are: 1) health of global capture fisheries; 2) the role of aquaculture in filling the global fish supply - demand gap and potentially reducing the pressure on capture fisheries; and 3) implications of changes in the global fish markets on fish consumption, especially in China and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Disaster Risk Management. Over the past 10 years, the World Bank has emerged as the global leader in disaster risk management (DRM); supporting client countries to assess exposure to hazards and address disaster risks. It provides technical and financial support for risk assessments, risk reduction, preparedness, financial protection, and resilient recovery and reconstruction. The Bank’s DRM portfolio has grown about 20 percent annually for the last five years to US$5.3 billion in FY14. In providing support for DRM, the World Bank promotes a comprehensive, multi-sector approach to managing disaster risk.
The Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), a growing partnership of 41 countries and seven international organizations, is the World Bank’s institutional mechanism for DRM. A new World Bank-GFDRR DRM Hub in Tokyo was established in February 2014 under a $100 million DRM program supported by Japan. The Hub will help to match relevant expertise with World Bank DRM operations and clients.
Biosafety in Action. For as little as 4 million dollars from a GEF Grant, during a period of 4 years, four countries (Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru) worked together to strengthen the technical and decision-making capacity for biosafety risk assessment and management in their countries. In the process, the importance of working on biosafety was demonstrated, increasing awareness in the region.
Climate Finance. The World Bank Group’s focus on climate change has resulted in significant financing to support low-emissions and resilient development. Some recent highlights include:
- The World Bank Group provided a total of $11.3 billion in lending with mitigation and adaptation co-benefits in FY14 ($11.9 billion in financing including MIGA).
- The World Bank (IBRD/IDA) committed $8.8 billion.
- The World Bank’s fund for the poorest countries, International Development Association (IDA), maintained a steady commitment to climate action, with about $5 billion committed in FY14.
- In FY14, there were 224 World Bank Group climate investment projects in over 77 countries.
- The World Bank and the IFC are among the world’s largest issuers of green bonds. To date, the World Bank Treasury has issued more than $8.2 billion in green bonds in 18 currencies since 2008. The IFC has issued $3.7 billion in green bonds.
Portfolio Results Environment Projects and Programs. Environment and natural resource management activities are being integrated into projects across the World Bank Group. Over the past decade (2004-13), the World Bank committed loans for US$31.8 billion, from which IDA’s contribution was US$7.7 billion, to support investment in environment and natural resource management.
Biodiversity Projects and Programs. The World Bank is one of the largest international financiers of biodiversity conservation with a portfolio of 243 projects worth over US$1.1 billion in the 10 years from FY2005 to 2014. These projects have been undertaken in 74 countries with the majority in Africa and the Latin America and Caribbean region.
Water Sector Projects and Programs. The World Bank is the largest external source of financing for water projects, which totaled US$7.5 billion in FY11, comprising 53% for water supply and sanitation, 12.5% for irrigation and drainage, 23.5% for hydropower, and 9.9%for flood protection. The Water practice includes World Bank operations, the Water unit, the Water and Sanitation Program, the Water Partnership Program, the Cooperation in International Waters in Africa, and the Southern Africa Water Initiative.
Agriculture Projects and Programs. The World Bank Group's work in agriculture is focused on five areas: raising productivity; helping farmers reach markets; reducing risk, vulnerability and inequality; improving incomes off the farm; and making agriculture more environmentally sustainable. In 2013, the Bank Group had $8.1 billion in new commitments to agriculture and related sectors.
World Bank Carbon Funds and Facilities (Forest, BioCarbon Fund, etc). The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility assists developing countries in their efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and foster conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks (all activities commonly referred to as "REDD+") by providing value to standing forests. Since its creation in 2004, the BioCarbon Fund has allocated resources to projects that transform landscapes and directly benefit poor farmers. It was the first carbon fund established in the world to focus on land use.
Housed within the Carbon Finance Unit of the World Bank, the BioCarbon Fund is a public-private sector initiative mobilizing financing to help develop projects that sequester or conserve carbon in forest and agro-ecosystems. It has been a pioneer in this sector, developing the infrastructure needed to pilot transactions and paving the way for the growing land-use carbon market established to date.
For more information about the BioCarbon Fund T1 and T2, download the BioCarbon Fund brochure (PDF). If you are interested in information about the new BioCarbon Fund Initiative for Sustainable Forest Landscapes (ISFL), please visit http://www.biocarbonfund-isfl.org
WB-GEF Program, including BD highlights The World Bank Group's Global Environment Facility Program. The World Bank Group-Global Environment Facility (GEF) Program is one of the institution’s largest and longest standing trust-funded programs. Since 1991, when the World Bank helped to establish the GEF, it has integrated global environmental benefits across the Bank programs through more than 790 investment projects and programs in 120 countries (pdf) spanning every region of the world.
Highlights From Inside The GEF-5 WBG-GEF Program. This document attempts to provide a flavor of the richness of the program's impacts and results, and touches upon the features it draws from the WBG's unique institutional capacity, which helps define the WBG-GEF program's specific approach in assisting countries to make the best use of their GEF funds. The program aims to turn collective challenges into opportunities for change and transformation along a more sustainable economic development path, working with partners to innovate to increase impact at the global, regional, and national levels. |
