DUSHANBE, June 26, 2013, Asia-Plus – According to the World Bank, the economic costs and social impacts of climate change threaten the prosperity of the Europe and Central Asia region; but well-designed climate action can bring numerous benefits, while also being cost-effective.
On June 25, the World Bank launched a set of three reports with the European Commission focus on the ‘here and now’ of policies to fight climate change.
In 2010, a heat wave in Russia may have contributed to more than 50,000 deaths. In 2012, droughts destroyed over 50 percent of crops in Kazakhstan, 25 percent in Russia, and 20 percent in Ukraine. These weather events have been linked to climate change and are expected to occur more frequently in the future.
In recent years, some countries in the Europe and Central Asia region have reportedly been slow to respond to this challenge. The region remains the most energy-intensive in the world – using 50 percent more energy per unit of output than the global average. Fossil fuels comprise 88 percent of the energy supply in Europe and Central Asia.
The three new reports identify the local and immediate benefits of climate action. They identify what countries in Europe and Central Asia should be doing, and how they can best do it:
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Growing Green: the Economic Benefits of Climate Action
identifies energy efficiency, cleaner energy, and natural resource management as the main components of a growth-friendly climate action strategy, and shows that the biggest gains will come from improving energy efficiency.
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Energy Efficiency: Lessons Learned from Success Stories
analyzes the policies of countries in the European Union that have improved energy efficiency the most – Denmark, Germany, Ireland, and Sweden in the west, and Lithuania, Poland, and Romania in Central Europe. The report shows that the quickest gains are in industry, while residential energy efficiency improvements tend to be more difficult).
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Balancing Act: Cutting Energy Subsidies while Protecting Affordability
proposes that with well-designed energy tariffs and social protection policies, the fiscal and environmental benefits of eliminating energy subsidies do not have to come at the expense of increased poverty and hardship. It shows that reducing consumption subsidies is possible and the welfare gains can be sizeable).
Climate change is already happening in the region, as seen in frequent floods, droughts, heat waves, and extensive forest fires in the Balkans, Central Asia, and Russia. Climate action is a priority for the World Bank’s work in Europe and Central Asia. Countries’ climate policies – including those that moderate the costs of climate action for the poor and vulnerable – should prioritize actions that will strengthen competitiveness and promote growth. By prioritizing climate action, countries in the region can ‘grow green’.
Climate action, which is an essential pillar of an effective development strategy, interacts with three important development objectives: economic growth; social inclusion; and environmental sustainability.
By focusing on three areas,
Growing Green: the Economic Benefits of Climate Action
shows that smart climate action can bring numerous benefits and its costs can be contained by: using energy more efficiently; using cleaner energy; and managing farms and forests better.
Since 1990, the energy intensity of economies has dropped by almost 33 percent, but the progress has not been uniform. EU12 countries have narrowed the efficiency gap with the EU15 by 70 percent, while Russia, Ukraine, and Central Asian countries remain among the worst performers in energy efficiency in the world.
Efficiency: Lessons Learned from Success Stories
provides the “how-to” of energy efficiency policies: getting the prices right; coordinating policies, learn, and adjust; and the quickest wins are in manufacturing.
The third report,
Balancing Act: Cutting Energy Subsidies While Protecting Affordability
, shows that without adequate social protection programs and better housing and energy sector policies, reductions in energy subsidies could increase poverty by 4 percentage points in the former Soviet Union – close to 6 percentage points in some countries – and over 2 percentage points in the EU member states and accession countries.
