scholarly journals Water-related infrastructure investments in a changing environment: a perspective from the World Bank

Water Policy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (S1) ◽  
pp. 31-53
Author(s):  
Diego J. Rodríguez ◽  
Homero A. Paltán ◽  
Luis E. García ◽  
Patrick Ray ◽  
Sarah St. George Freeman
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Investment Decision ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
World Bank Group ◽  
Management Options ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World

Abstract At present, there is a global deficit in infrastructure and the World Bank Group (WBG) is one of the major sources of financing to reduce this gap worldwide. The WBG has policies and protocols for approving investments taking into consideration financial and economic indicators while ensuring social and environmental safeguards. In recent years, these safeguards have been updated to include the effects of climate change and robustness and resilience to support climate-informed project investment decision-making. A series of tools for screening projects for climate vulnerabilities and identification of risk management options have been developed to help project teams comply with these requirements. One of these tools is the hierarchical four-phased Decision Tree Framework (DTF) that, beyond screening, helps to analyze plans and project vulnerabilities, climate-related or otherwise, using a decision scaling approach, and explore risk management options, if necessary. The four phases of the DTF are (i) project screening, (ii) initial analysis, (iii) stress test, and (iv) climate risk management. This paper reviews applications of the DTF from the climate change screening phase to non-climate uncertainty screening and decision-making for project investments and prioritization. A peek into work in progress for incorporating resilience in the decision-making process, both for projects and through projects, is also provided, as well as next steps, looking forward.

Arbitral Institutions and the Enforcement of Climate Change Obligations for the Benefit of all Stakeholders: The Role of ICSID

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy Miles ◽  
Merryl Lawry-White
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Private Investment ◽  
International Investment ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
World Bank Group ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
Bank Group

Abstract In 2015, States concluded the landmark Paris Agreement, which committed to a long-term goal of “holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels”. The Paris Agreement galvanises all signatory nations in a common cause — combating climate change and adapting to and investigating its effects, and with enhanced support to assist developing countries to do so. As such, it charts a new course in the global climate effort. The goals of the Paris Agreement will only be achieved through massive investment in pursuit of a common objective. According to the International Finance Corporation, an estimated US$90 trillion investment is required to implement the Paris Agreement. The current regime of international investment agreements (IIAs) provides an invaluable opportunity to promote the investment required to achieve the Paris Agreement objectives, including mitigation, adaptation and transition from fossil fuels. However, users must take care to ensure that investment is, in fact, protected and encouraged, and to maintain critical progress in promoting international climate change policy. ICSID is one of the five arms of the World Bank Group, which recognises that “[c]limate change is a threat to the core mission of the World Bank Group”. The ICSID Convention is also designed to promote international private investment. As such, ICSID sits at an important nexus in this discussion. This article: (i) provides an overview of several influential arbitration decisions relating to international environmental disputes, and the way in which the existing climate change regime uses arbitration as a dispute resolution mechanism; (ii) examines the evolution of investment treaties, prior decisions, especially in the field of renewable energy, and the tools available within IIAs for tribunals to promote the Paris Agreement objectives; (iii) discusses what arbitral institutions have done to date, in terms of tools, procedures, rules and other mechanisms, to promote climate change expertise and facilitate the resolution of disputes in a way that is consistent with climate change concerns; and (iv) considers ICSID's position as an arm of the World Bank, particularly in light of the WBG Climate Change Action Plan commitment to scaling up climate action and aligning internal processes with intentionally agreed climate change goals.

scholarly journals A Trouble Shared is a Trouble Halved

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 171-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonella Angelini
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
World Bank ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Program Implementation ◽  
Legal Responsibility ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
Different Shapes ◽  
Private Actors

The World Bank has a large partnership portfolio, including international organizations and private actors. Due to their diversity and to the ambitious programs they pursue, partners are highly exposed to financial and operational risk. Curbing this risk takes different shapes in the legal design of partnerships. In particular, partnerships differ in terms of the degree of legal continuity along the stages of decision-making, management of funds and program implementation. This configuration raises several problems for the attribution of international legal responsibility for partnership-related activities. In some cases, the problem is one of attribution of conduct at the level of the partnership’s governing body as well as at that of implementation. More broadly, the policy of risk management leads to a dilution of control within the partnership chain. This means that one can construe only certain partnership programmes, or certain segments of a partnership, as amassing enough control for responsibility to arise.

Unveiling the Theoretical Mistakes in the World Bank Formation and its Implication on Survival of Africa Monetary Union

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-124
Author(s):  
Olatunji Abdul Shobande ◽  
Kingsley Chinonso Mark
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
Monetary Union ◽  
Political Interest ◽  
World Bank Group ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
Bank Group ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Developed Nations

Abstract The quest for urgent solution to resolve the world liquidity problem has continued to generate enthusiastic debates among political economists, policy makers and the academia. The argument has focused on whether the World Bank Group was established to enhance the stability of international financial system or meant to enrich the developed nations. This study argues that the existing political interest of the World Bank Group in Africa may serve as lesson learned to other ambitious African Monetary Union.

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