The African Development Bank has been setting itself up as a major knowledge broker for sustainable development across the continent. However, a new mapping project from Heinrich Boell and BIC draws into question the Bank’s track record when it comes to climate change.
The World Bank is continuing apace on its work studying the proposed Rogun hydropower project in Tajikistan, which would be the largest hydropower in Central Asia. Two new assessments were recently released.
The CASA-1000 project, which begins the process of integrating the energy markets in Central and South Asia, is moving along with updated feasilbility studies from an independent consulting firm.
The Sierra Club, along with the Kosovar Institute for Policy Research and Development, has commissioned a report detailing the economic data involved in the World Bank’s TOR for its proposed Kosovar power project, including a lignite fired coal plant, finding many problems with the analysis.
A new evaluation of a $1.3 billion World Bank development policy loan to promote sustainability reforms at the Brazilian National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) that questions the effectiveness of DPLs due to weaknesses in existing Bank policy guiding their design and execution. This brief calls for the reform of Bank DPL policy as an urgent part of the ongoing revision of World Bank safeguard policies to ensure consistent management of risk across all World Bank operations.
This update prepared by the Bank Information Center introduces the FCPF Readiness Package (R-Package) and the Carbon Fund (CF) operational.
The irregularity of the voluntary market of carbon credits is outpacing the environmental and legislative capacity of the country: irregular transfer of millions of hectares of forests as part of the market for carbon credits and other environmental services.
The Sierra Club and Bank Information Center are releasing a new report today describing the daily realities of coal impacted communities from Cirebon, Indonesia, the Konkan coast and Kutch India, Inner Mongolia China, Appalachia USA, New South Wales Australia, and Limpopo South Africa.
On June 9, 2011, Management at the World Bank submitted to the Inspection Panel three water studies it had commissioned related to the Greater Beirut Water Supply Project. In a March 2011 meeting with the Bank’s Board of Directors which took place after the Panel recommended further investigation into the potential harms of this project, the Panel agreed to wait for the results of the above-noted studies to decide whether or not an investigation of the project would still be warranted. The three studies focused on the cost, quality and availability of water associated with the project as these were identified by the Panel as the main issues warranting investigation.
The workshop Oslo REDD Exchange 2011 was organized by Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI) and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), on 23-24 June 2011.