News

Sharing World Bank’s Energy & Climate Adaptation Experience with the World Resources Institute
December 01 2010

The World Bank and ESMAP were invited to the World Resources Institute (WRI)to present experiences with Energy and Climate Adaptation in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region on November 3, 2010. Manish Bapna, WRI’s Executive Vice President and Managing Director opened the session and introduced Ron Hoffer, Lead Environmental Specialist from the World Bank and Jane Ebinger, ESMAP’s Energy and Climate Change Thematic Coordinator as the presenters, and Heather McGray a Senior Associate from the WRI as the discussant.

 

Hoffer presented the work that is being done on Climate Adaptation within the World Bank’s ECA region. He noted that as a region, ECA is significantly threatened as it is getting warmer with more droughts and floods making it a region vulnerable to climate change. Given this, the region has also been an early starter in investing in climate smart studies and approaches, being proponents of carbon finance and giving attention to energy efficiency and energy system-wide improvements, regional integration and small to medium hydropower. Among other efforts, they have also invested in disaster risk mitigation. Hoffer noted the region’s focus on climate change will continue to be multi-sectoral (energy, agriculture and water resources management) and will also include the social dimensions, income and poverty impacts. ECA has made strides in integrating climate change into the country level dialogue and will continue to do so through its focus on climate change research and investments.
 

 

Ebinger presented the climate vulnerability assessments for the energy sector that were completed in Albania and Uzbekistan and had a strong focus on multi-stakeholder engagement through a series of country based discussions and workshops around key questions on energy and climate vulnerability. The lessons and experiences from this work were compiled into an online toolkit, HEAT: Hands on Energy Adaptation Toolkit. HEAT is designed to help other countries carry out a stakeholder based semi-quantified risk assessment of climate vulnerabilities and adaptation options for the entire energy supply-use chain. It can help address questions such as that posed in Albania “How can Albania best manage its future security of energy supply in the face of a changing climate?” or Uzbekistan “What is the optimal power generation policy to meet the future power demands of Uzbekistan including the effects of Climate Change?” HEAT can help raise awareness among key stakeholders – in government, the private sector, academia and civil society – of climate change risks and initiate dialogue on energy sector adaptation.
 

 

McGray provided feedback on the presentations welcoming the efforts taking place in the ECA region and noting the importance of sharing the experiences that are taking place at a country level. She noted that there is a need to ensure these tools and case studies are shared with the broader planning and decision making community to support effective climate action. Participants in the room noted the efforts taking place around the world in terms of research and analysis and the need to coordinate across institutions to avoid duplication of effort and create a greater impact. It was noted that it is critical to continue exploring climate actions while sharing experiences with others who are investing in similar efforts. The challenge thereafter is taking this shared information and knowledge and place it in hands of decision makers to support policy dialogue and the design of climate smart policies.