Country Environmental Analysis
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Publication
Niger Country Environmental Analysis
(Washington DC, 2023-03-23)Niger is a fragile country, marked by a poorly diversified economy and extreme poverty. Climate change, rapid demographic growth, and weak governance are major threats to Niger's growth. These changes have led to human losses, decreased soil productivity, and increased competition for access to resources. Moreover, many rural communities have grappled with a land tenure system with often unclear and overlapping rights, a lack of land use classification and registry, and an absence of monitoring and enforcing by local institutions. It is important to note that the rapid population growth and the recent COVID pandemic have put additional pressure on food security and natural resources. Natural capital is crucial for the Nigeriens’ livelihoods and food security. Degradation of cropland and pastureland is a key problem in Niger. This Country Environmental Analysis (CEA) aims to analyze critical environmental challenges that threaten sustainable economic growth in Niger and to propose actions to address them. It focuses on three government priorities that require in-depth analysis and immediate response: land degradation, deforestation and forest degradation, and climate change. -
Publication
Serbia – Toward a More Effective, Efficient, Equitable and Resilient Health System
(World Bank, Washington DC, 2023)The health system in Serbia faces significant challenges arising from a long-term demographic trend and the recent shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Serbia’s population is aging at a rapid pace, and the share of the population aged 65 and above almost doubled —from 9.6 percent to 18.7 percent—between 1990 and 2019. This, coupled with high prevalence of unhealthy lifestyle factors, such as smoking, heavy drinking, and high consumption of fatty and sugary diet, has contributed to a rapidly rising burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). Addressing NCDs exerts significant financial pressure on the health system that has been further squeezed after more than two years of dealing with COVID-19. This is all happening in a context where the economic contraction that began in 2020 after the advent of COVID-19 pandemic and compounded with the war in Ukraine has adversely affected the country’s capacity to pay for health. The health system also has a challenge to meet population expectations, which have become more demanding after decades of strong economic growth. -
Publication
Supporting Serbia’s Transition to Greener and More Resilient Growth: Policy and Institutional Reforms
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-09-30)Serbia needs to transition to a greener growth model for internal and external reasons. Internally, Serbia’s economy is still characterized by low energy and resource productivity, with significant impacts on health and the environment. As a candidate country for EU membership, Serbia also needs to react to external influences by aligning domestic policies with the EU’s energy, environment, and climate legislation, while avoiding negative impacts of the EU’s planned Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). This report draws from a rich analysis to provide recommendations on how the transition to greener and more resilient growth in Serbia can begin. First, environmental fiscal reforms are needed to incentivize the adoption of more environmentally friendly technologies. The implementation of carbon pricing will also enable Serbia to proactively prepare for the upcoming EU CBAM. The proceeds of carbon pricing should be reinvested in innovation and education to further accelerate the green transition. Second, institutional frameworks need to be strengthened to support the government in delivering on reforms. Third, sector-specific reforms will need to address important challenges like energy efficiency, air pollution, waste management, water, and wastewater. Importantly, the transition needs to be based on a coherent and adaptive roadmap, which mitigates the risks of 'brown' growth, protects those adversely impacted, and ensures an equitable distribution of the benefits of increased growth. -
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Azerbaijan : Towards Green Growth - Issues Note
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-09)The welfare and economic growth of Azerbaijan’s development trajectory based on fossil fuel extraction has come at the expense of the environment, other non-oil industries, and human capital growth. Due to its lack of economic diversification, the country is highly vulnerable to transition risks, volatility of fossil fuel markets, and climate change. This note, produced in support of Azerbaijan’s ambition for green growth, identifies how increased climate action and greening of a number of sectors have the potential to spur diversification of Azerbaijan’s economy, contribute to addressing sector- and country-specific environmental challenges and goals, reduce greenhouse (GHG) emissions, address the identified physical and transitional climate risks and vulnerabilities, and strengthen long-term climate resilience of the country. Investments in resource efficiency, sustainable intensification of agriculture, better land use and urban planning, water and waste management, switching to cost-effective renewable energy, and research on low-carbon hydrogen and Caspian maritime space are the green measures that can have an immediate positive impact on Azerbaijan’s economy and the environment. The first stage in identifying areas for wealth development will be a comprehensive green growth and asset diversification strategy, informed by detailed sectoral analysis and supported by capable institutions. Once mobilized by public sector interventions through policies to enable and incentivize green investments and green finance instruments, private enterprises will take the lead in relocating capital to green supply chains, creating jobs and building human capital while increasing the focus on innovation and efficiency. Cutting system leak emissions in the oil and gas industry could contribute significantly to reducing GHG emissions at lower costs. Enhancing the environmental performance of enterprises will be made possible by promoting eco-efficient policies and investments in cleaner production and technologies. Beginning now and leveraging this transition to green growth and diversification through the use of public resources and revenues from fossil fuel exports, Azerbaijan can mitigate certain short-term difficulties and promote long-term sustainable growth to ensuring a cleaner environment and economic prosperity. -
Publication
Towards a Greener Economy in Uzbekistan
(Washington, DC, 2022-08)This report is an extended Country Environmental Assessment that identifies key issues and priorities for action as Uzbekistan transitions to a sustainable and inclusive market economy. Land degradation, water stress, and air pollution from particulate matter are the main environmental issues, with additional socio-economic risks to the country from its high energy and carbon intensity and the impact of climate change on vulnerable communities. The report analyzes strategies for greening the economic transition, including resource efficiency and landscape restoration, the low-carbon transition, resilience against natural disasters and climate change, urban air quality and sustainable cities, green employment and public institutions, and green finance. Additional follow-up studies to inform detailed policy formulation and action include distributional analysis, adaptation strategy and planning, a Long-Term Decarbonization Strategy, and Climate Change Institutional Assessment, among others. -
Publication
Tchad : Diagnostic Environnemental Pays
(Washington, DC, 2022-06)Chad faces enormous challenges: poverty, insecurity associated with fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV), and low access to basic services such as education, health, and drinking water. In addition, it is the world’s most vulnerable country to climate change, according to the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative, 2021. In this challenging context, the COVID-19 crisis worsened economic difficulties, increased inequality, and plunged hundreds of thousands of Chadians in extreme poverty. Key environmental challenges include: (i) Land degradation; (ii) Waste management and (iii) Climate change. -
Publication
Accelerating Clean, Green, and Climate-Resilient Growth in Vietnam: A Country Environmental Analysis
(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2022-06)Vietnam has demonstrated great and almost unrivaled development success over the past few decades as evidenced by a variety of measures, including national income, poverty reduction, and access to services. However, Vietnam’s performance in terms of progress on robust, equitable and sustainable development, an overarching objective of the country’s current policy framework, highlights that Vietnam is comparing less favorably when benchmarked against countries at similar income level, in the East Asia and Pacific region or globally, especially on the environment and resource efficiency. The shortcomings in critical areas of development point to important areas for policy action and investments in relation to the environment, especially as Vietnam strives to ascend to upper-middle-income country status (a level at which countries’ international and regional peers generally perform significantly higher). These include measures to rapidly decouple economic activities from polluting fossil fuel consumption (and advance renewable energy); make agriculture and industry more resource-efficient, cleaner, and productive; boost social resilience to natural disasters; and climate-proof infrastructure. Considering today’s rampant pollution and highly concerning degradation of the natural environment, it is critical that Vietnam accelerates its shift to a growth model that is cleaner, greener, and more climate resilient. The current 2021–30 Socio-Economic Development Plan (SEDP) and subordinate strategies (such as the new Green Growth Strategy) are already motivated by the overarching policy orientation toward sustainability. And the recent commitment to achieve a carbon-neutral economy by midcentury gives additional impetus to this critical transition. Moving toward a more circular economy, in essence a more resource efficient industry and harnessing the potential of renewable resources to reduce leakage and pollution, in key sectors and value chains can unlock significant growth potential and help reverse the current trends. Many of the necessary interventions, based on first-order estimates, can yield significant benefits relative to costs. Conversely, continuing the growth model of the past decades would result in cumulative costs that create a drag on the economy. Market-based instruments (including taxing carbon emissions and polluting materials such as plastics), if designed well, can unleash economic forces and leverage private sector investments that can simultaneously boost Vietnam’s sustainability, economic growth, and competitiveness. -
Publication
Madagascar Country Environmental Analysis - Promoting Green, Resilient, and Inclusive Development
(Washington, DC, 2022)Madagascar remains one of the poorest countries in the world. The country has endured stubbornly high poverty rates and limited economic growth for decades. Madagascar sustained modest Gross domestic product (GDP) growth between 2013 and 2019, but by 2020, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the country’s export revenue and private investment plummeted, triggering a GDP contraction of 7.2 percent. That economic deterioration resulted in an all-time high poverty rate of 80.7 percent in 2021. While the island nation struggles with economic poverty, Madagascar is rich in natural resources. With dense forests surrounded by almost 5,000 km of coastline, multiple economic sectors have the potential to grow and contribute to poverty reduction. Tapping into and investing in the development of Madagascar’s natural resources offers the country a path toward sustainable economic development. To do so will require careful management to ensure these resources are not degraded or destroyed in the process. The Country Environmental Analysis (CEA) report assesses three areas that are key to promoting Green, Resilient, and Inclusive Development in Madagascar: sustainable landscape management, the Blue Economy, and nature-based tourism. Additionally, the CEA highlights the persistent and emerging environmental challenges confronting the country, from air pollution to waste management, and the need to manage these to ensure sustainable development. -
Publication
Environmental Challenges for Green Growth and Poverty Reduction: A Country Environmental Analysis for the Lao People’s Democratic Republic
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-06-01)The Environmental Challenges for Green Growth and Poverty Reduction in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic report reveals strong linkages among environmental quality, economic growth, and social wellbeing of the nation’s 7 million inhabitants. This report is a comprehensive presentation prepared after two years of targeted diagnostic research and analysis of issues and conditions within Lao PDR. The analysis was conducted by an international team of World Bank researchers in cooperation with counterparts in lead government agencies in Lao PDR. Information from the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, and others, provided an initial basis for the assessments, and this was complemented by other international information. The results can be regarded as a state-of-the-art contribution of information to decision makers in Lao PDR having an interest in achieving sustainable growth consistent with the 2019 National Green Growth Strategy. The report’s scope includes consideration of impacts on key economic sectors and on risk factors influencing the health of the population. The assessments encompassed the economic costs of degradation in the forestry, agriculture, fisheries, mining, and hydropower sectors. The report identifies solid waste management and plastics as an important priority to which the Government of Lao PDR has already pledged its support in regional and global initiatives. Within the context of the Mekong River and its watershed, this report addresses climate-change impacts including increased risks of flooding. -
Publication
Georgia: Towards Green and Resilient Growth
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-11)Georgia has made remarkable progress in terms of economic growth and poverty alleviation. In 2019, the country became an upper middle-income country Georgia’s endowment of natural resources is a significant source of national wealth and has the potential for accelerating inclusive socio-economic development. Yet, challenges persist as poverty and inequality remain high, especially in rural areas. The Coronavirus (COVID-19) induced global recession has affected important sectors of the economy, including tourism and the travel industry. This report fills knowledge gaps in the upstream importance of environment and natural assets, and highlights areas for aligning national strategies with sustainable recovery from the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In so doing, the report aims to inform national policies by which Georgia has commitments to “greening” sector developments aligned with the provisions of the EU–Georgia Association Agreement. The analysis underlying the report includes updates to the cost of environmental degradation (CoED) published in 2015. It also reflects the new government priorities and options for addressing specific challenges in forest management, land and coastal degradation, and air pollution. The recommendations of this report are designed for a wider audience, including the government of Georgia, as well as development partners and broader society.