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Despite the declining trends in total energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, energy intensity, and emission intensity over the past two decades, Romania still emits more greenhouse gas per unit of output than many other members of the European Union. The country is looking for further greening of its energy supply system to achieve the clean energy and climate change mitigation goals included in the European Unions 2030 target and 2050 Roadmap. Using an energy supply optimization model, TIMES, this study develops energy supply mixes for Romania under a baseline scenario that satisfies the European Unions current energy and climate targets for 2020, a green scenario that satisfies the European Unions 2030 energy and climate targets, and a super green scenario that satisfies the European Unions prospective 2050 energy road map. The study finds that although Romania could achieve the green scenario at a moderate cost, it would be challenging and costly to achieve the super green scenario.

Armenia and Georgia are taking the climate change agenda seriously and contributing to efforts for mitigating global climate change through various ways, including preparation of low-carbon development strategies for their future economic growth. The improvement of energy efficiency is one of the key elements of the low-carbon development strategies. This study develops a methodology to estimate a marginal abatement cost curve for energy efficiency measures and applies it to the building sector in both countries. The study finds that among the various energy efficiency measures considered, the replacement of energy inefficient lightbulbs (incandescent lamps) with efficient lightbulbs is the most cost-effective measure in saving energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the building sector. Most energy efficiency improvement options considered in the study would produce net economic benefits even if the value of reduced carbon is not taken into account.

There has been a clear need for energy-efficient (EE) technologies that can be applicable in the municipal street lighting sector. The objective of this manual is to support the preparation and implementation of street lighting projects in India, using performance contracting and other public private partnership-based delivery approaches. This manual draws upon global best practices, including practices that have been tried and presented within India and South Asia; and draws from their failures and successes to document the major lessons learned. The manual provides a brief overall background of EE in India, the kind of barriers faced in the implementation of EE projects, and the kind of prevalent policy environment for EE in the country. The manual is divided into eight sections. Section one provides an overview of EE street lighting, its components, Indian standards for outdoor lighting, the key lamp technologies, and the potential for intelligent street lighting systems. Section two highlights the financial models for implementation of street lighting projects. Section three describes the essentials of undertaking a detailed energy audit to develop robust baselines. Section four focuses on procurement and contracting. Section five describes methodologies for developing monitoring and verification (M and V) protocols for EE Street lighting projects. Section six brings together the useful tools and matrices in implementation of street lighting projects. Section seven lists the key stakeholders involved in India in such projects and their potential role. Section eight provides details on international and Indian case studies on implementing EE in street lighting and key lessons from these case examples.

The World Bank (WB) has for many years been financing and conducting work to increase access to modern energy services among energy poor communities, and its efforts vary greatly from project to project, based largely on client-country context, requests, and needs. In mid-2014, CLASP evaluated a selection of recent WB EA projects to identify opportunities to expand and more effectively integrate and operationalize EE, a process and set of principles we refer to as EA+EE.

This report examines how green growth and sustainable development policies can be incorporated into structural reform agendas. Indeed, as demonstrated in the report, many of these policies are closely linked and synergistic with the framework policies applied by G20 governments in their efforts to pursue strong and sustainable growth. The report, has been prepared in response to the request from G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in their communication of 25-26 February 2012 that asked the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), with the World Bank and the United Nation (UN), to prepare a report that provides options for G20 countries on inserting green growth and sustainable development policies into structural reform agendas, tailored to specific country conditions and level of development. The report will be an input to the G-20 leader's summit in Los Cabos and provides a toolkit of policy options from which countries may draw-upon when designing their own green growth strategies. The G20 development working group has also tasked the International Organizations with the development of a non-prescriptive toolkit of policy options to support inclusive green growth in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication in developing countries.

Mitigating climate change while addressing development needs will involve a massive scale-up of investments in Renewable Energy (RE) and Energy Efficiency (EE). Most of these climate investments will come from the private sector, which will be the main driver of low-carbon growth in both developing and developed countries, provided that countries have the right investment climate for climate investment. The enabling environment for climate investment in each country depends on a variety of factors. These include macroeconomic determinants such as a functioning bureaucracy and banking system; as well as a narrower set of policy determinants such as renewable energy targets, mandatory standards, preferential power tariffs, waiver of import duties, and other fiscal incentives. While the exact mix of policies, regulations and incentives will depend on country-specific circumstances, the fact that they exist sends the right signal to climate investors, by providing them with legal certainty and lowering their costs and risks. Policies, regulations and incentives also help to level the playing field for climate investors in the face of market realities that tend to favor the continued use of carbon intense energy sources, such as support for fossil fuels and the high costs of renewable energy technologies.

The scope of the present study focuses on the assessment of opportunities to improve the effectiveness of the clean development mechanism (CDM) through the enhanced use of standardization. The study argues that the introduction of the concept of standardized baselines to the CDM can substantially change the way the CDM develops. The goal of the present study is to discuss what the options are for driving the idea of standardization further. The working hypothesis is that baseline standardization alone may not be sufficient in that regard but can be seen as a starting point for improving the CDM through the enhanced use of standardization at other levels of CDM procedures. The study examines how standardization can be used to simplify CDM procedures throughout the project cycle and to extend the scope of the CDM in a way that improves access of underrepresented sectors and regions. The paper is divided into three chapters. The first chapter sets the scene by analyzing in detail procedural imperfections of the CDM that can be addressed through extending standardization to project cycle procedures. The second chapter discusses new opportunities that standardization could provide to the CDM reform. The third chapter of the study analyzes if and how standardization can enable policy-driven actions to generate carbon credits under the CDM. The chapter also assesses the ways standardization can help overcome the remaining barriers to better incorporate the CDM in host countries low carbon development policies, and to inform the development of new market mechanisms.

This issue includes the following headings: renewable energy: wind and solar; energy efficiency: green building; and green finance: infrastructure finance.

The World Bank Group (WBG) has focused on reducing the environmental impacts of its internal operations and improving corporate environmental practices since 2002, when the WBG President announced WBG's commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The objective of this document is to summarize the actions WBG has taken thus far to reduce environmental impacts from internal operations and present an action plan to further integrate sustainability into WBG's internal operations. Although this work focuses on the environmental impact associated with WBG daily operations, the links between WBG policies and actions related to environmental management and the financial/social considerations are significant. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) footprint and World Bank corporate responsibility teams facilitate the sustainability commitment of the WBG and monitor and track its progress. These teams provide technical information and research support to a dedicated group of champions throughout the WBG who implement emission reduction activities. Budget for these activities flows primarily through the environment department, the general services department, and IFC facilities management and administration. The environment department and IFC facilities management each resource one staff member to provide back-up research support and to monitor and report on environmental metrics, with building engineers and managers and project officers from across the WBG contributing.

The 2005 Gleneagles G8 summit in July 2005 stimulated a concerted effort of the Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to broaden and accelerate programs on access to energy and climate change mitigation and adaptation through the Clean Energy Investment Framework (CEIF). At the Gleneagles summit, it was agreed that a report on the implementation of the CEIF would be prepared for the 2008 G8 (Group of Eight: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) summit hosted by Japan. This joint report of the MDBs to the G8 summit in Hokkaido is intended to provide information on the outcomes and lessons learned under the CEIF, describe the collective MDB objectives for addressing the energy access and climate change challenges, and outline how the MDBs plan to build on the CEIF experience to date to more fully achieve these objectives. The report builds upon the 'the MDBs and the climate change agenda' report that was presented at the December 2007 Bali climate change conference. This report describes actions taken by each MDB to develop climate change strategies and programs of actions tailored to their particular client needs, based on resources and funding mechanisms currently available. Under the CEIF, the MDBs have strengthened collaboration on analytical work and programming and committed to expand this collaboration to optimize the impact of their collective actions. In addition to reporting on the status of the CEIF, this report outlines the collective ambition of the MDBs with respect to assisting the developing countries in meeting the climate change challenge, summarizes their evolving strategies designed to meet these objectives and the mechanisms through which they intend to achieve the necessary collaboration to optimize the collective impact of their climate change interventions.