01. Annual Reports & Independent Evaluations
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Publication
Energy Efficiency Finance : Assessing the Impact of IFC's China Utility-based Energy Efficiency Finance Program
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2010)This evaluation assesses the performance of International Finance Corporations (IFC's) energy efficiency finance program in China aimed at stimulating energy efficiency investments through bank guarantees and technical assistance. The program's significance is underpinned by the fact that China's size, rapid economic growth, and inefficiencies in energy use make it one of the world's largest emitters of carbon dioxide (CO2.). The utilization of IFC's program has been rapid compared with other similar programs. The difference made by the program is traced along the chain of interventions: (i) at the level of banks, the program is narrowly based on one of the two partner banks, which, with the help of the program, expanded its energy efficiency lending as a new business line; (ii) at the level of energy management companies, the program's technical assistance improved the program participants' access to finance; and (iii) at the end-user level, it promoted the use of energy efficiency investments that achieved reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The evaluation recommends areas of improvement to realize greater impact. First, the program needs to emphasize areas where the potential additionality is high, such as small enterprises. Second, the program needs to concentrate more on activities that have the potential to reduce emissions significantly, such as energy efficiency for buildings. Third, the program's subsidy elements need to be reoriented to the areas of market failure, with IFC increasing its coverage of first loss from its own resources. -
Publication
The Bank's Assistance to China's Energy Sector
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-04-27)China is the second largest energy consumer in the world and the largest producer and consumer of coal. Owing to its large coal resources, it is and will remain in the foreseeable future largely energy self-sufficient, although crude oil imports have steadily increased since 1993. In just 17 years, China has become the Bank's largest borrower in the energy sector having received about 7 billion dollars in loans to date. The Bank has also carried out a substantial amount of analytical and advisory services. Despite the amount of lending to the energy sector, the sheer size of the sector in China has made the World Bank, at least in financial terms, a relatively marginal player. The Bank s assistance aimed at helping China's integration into the global economy. It focused on removing bottlenecks to the country's accelerating economic growth and on institutional development (emphasizing technology transfer and capacity building). After the major policy breakthroughs of the mid-1990s in the power sector, progress on sector reform has slowed and major policy issues in such critical subsectors as coal, oil, and gas have largely gone unattended. To address this, the Bank can choose to focus increasingly on peripheral subsectors such as renewables and energy efficiency where policy issues are less sensitive and government buy-in more likely. A more difficult path will be for the Bank to continue its sizeable financial support to the energy sector but frame it within a truly comprehensive dialogue on national energy policy issues. -
Publication
The World Bank and China's Environment 1993-2003
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-04-27)China's environmental degradation has developed over centuries, but record recent rates of economic growth have now widened environmental impacts and accelerated many adverse trends. China's urbanization and industrialization have produced rising material standards of living but have ever more costly environmental consequences. The period 1992-2001 coincided with a renewed Bank commitment to the environment, culminating in a new 2001 Bank environmental strategy. For the evaluation period there were four policies against which environmental performance can be judged: mainstreaming the environment; enforcing environmental safeguards; implementing a global agenda; and environmental stewardship. The environment and social sector development sector management unit (SMU) has a small professional staff and manages the few Bank-funded specialized environment projects. The Bank provided intellectual leadership and when economic sector work (ESW) was critical, the stakes were so high that the overall cost-effectiveness of ESW was assured. Rightly the Bank participated enthusiastically and shared knowledge with a pluralistic group of donors allied to Chinese research institutes and non-government organizations (NGOs). -
Publication
The World Bank's Assistance to China's Transport Sector
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-04-27)China's economic development since the opening of its economy in the late 1970s has resulted in an eight percent average annual rate of economic growth. Key facets of this growth are rapidly increasing domestic and foreign trade as well as increasing personal mobility and consumption of energy. The deficiencies of the Chinese road and highway system have in particular created a bottleneck in China's economic development. The major objective of the China country assistance strategy (since the 1980s) was to alleviate infrastructure bottlenecks, in providing financial resources and promoting sector reforms in China. In 1997-98, the World Bank worked together with the Chinese government in completing a review of the transport sector and preparing an intermodal transport strategy. The strategy provides proposals for increasing competition and efficiency, identifies the changing patterns of demand for transport, and advances the analysis of investment needs of the sector and their financing. -
Publication
An Evaluation of World Bank Assistance to China for Poverty Reduction in the 1990s
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-04-27)This paper attempts an evaluation of World Bank s assistance to China for poverty reduction during the 1990s. It begins with a summary of China's performance in poverty reduction during the decade as a backdrop to the subject in section two. Section three, presents an analysis of the causes why China's performance in poverty reduction was not faster during this decade of extraordinarily rapid growth. Section four briefly considers the evolution of China's strategy for poverty reduction. Section five, the central section of the paper, discusses the role of the Bank's main instruments - economic and sector work; and lending operations in helping China alleviate poverty. Section six considers future priorities for Bank strategy in China to help accelerate the reduction of remaining poverty in the country. -
Publication
China : An Evaluation of World Bank Assistance
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2005)This book evaluates the relevance and effectiveness of Bank assistance to China since the early 1990s. The author finds that the Bank has made important contributions to economic reform, poverty reduction, infrastructure development, and environmental protection, but has fallen short of its objectives in promoting fiscal and financial reforms to reduce inequality and risk. This book also addresses the variability of the environmental safeguard policy and procedures. The author contends that the Bank still has a role to play in China, but with a reduced lending program and without International Development Association (IDA) resources, both the Bank and China need to adapt in order to make the best use of Bank assistance.