This report examines patterns and trends in resource use and resource efficiency in 16 selected emerging economies between 1985 and 2005. In order to facilitate comparison, the authors divided these countries into three different groups according to their dominant strategy of economic development since 1985: resource-based economies with a high ratio of raw materials in exports, including Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Morocco, Russia and South Africa; industry-based economies which have been expanding their capacity to produce manufactured goods and related services, including China, Costa Rica, Malaysia, Mexico and the Republic of Korea; and services-based economies that have largely based their development since 1985 on services (e.g. tourism, financial or knowledge-based industries), including Barbados, Egypt, India and the Seychelles. While none of these three development paths is exclusive, they are useful categories for analytical purposes, as each is linked to specific physical or material profiles in terms of resource use and resource productivity.
This report constitutes the findings of a study on the potential of market pull instruments for promoting innovation in environmental characteristics. The study was conducted by COWI A/S in collaboration with Ecotec Ltd.
The study aims at providing an insight into and an enhanced understanding of the extent to which demand pull instruments promote innovation and to investigate the assumption that greater demand lead to greater innovation.
The study builds on the outcome of an extensive literature review; nearly 40 interviews conducted with industry representatives across a total of six industrial sectors, including business associations; researchers; and a workshop.
This book is organised as follows: the first chapter examines the pattern of structural transformation in Middle East and North Africa, or MENA and summarises the role of various factors examined thoroughly in the rest of the volume. The second chapter examines the correlates of this overall disappointing performance. At the macro level, MENA countries have been unable to maintain depreciated (undervalued) real exchange rates for long periods, yet such undervaluation has proved important to offset the market failures and poor institutional environment that severely hit the dynamic non-resource-intensive traded sectors.
The world's first cities were in the Uruk cluster in Mesopotamia. The largest was Ur, which appears in the Epic of Gilgamesh (one of the earliest known works of literature, set around 3,500 BCE). Extending over 60 hectares, Ur was home to about 24,000 people. But as an irrigation city, also providing marketing and defense services, it governed and extracted surpluses from a neighboring population of about 500,000. Its urban population was densely concentrated, more than 400 people per hectare, and the planning practices were strikingly sophisticated. With four main residential areas, Ur offered its inhabitants basic amenities such as well-laid-out streets and sanitation. The report provides a framework to help city leaders make informed decisions for sustainable development in their cities. This book, planning, connecting, and financing cities, now distills the lessons learned from these diagnostics into a practical framework for sustainable urbanization, which is organized around the three policy pillars of the title.
This report analyses the social dimensions of the Republic of Macedonia's green growth strategy using a Participatory Scenario Development (PSD) methodology. The report provides a summary of the major challenges faced by the Republic of Macedonia in terms of social-economic development, demographic development and climate change, future development scenarios, with breakdowns by sector, and recommendations with respect to green growth strategy development. The report is part of the World Bank's support to the Macedonian government through the "FYR Macedonia Green Growth and Climate Change Analytic and Advisory Support Program".
This study explores the complex process of transit and land-use integration in rapidly growing cities in developing countries. It first identifies barriers to and opportunities for effective coordination of transit infrastructure and urban development. It then recommends a set of policies and implementation measures for overcoming these barriers and exploiting these opportunities. Well-integrated transit and land development create urban forms and spaces that reduce the need for travel by private motorized vehicles. Areas with good access to public transit and well-designed urban spaces that are walkable and bikeable become highly attractive places for people to live, work, learn, play, and interact. Such environments enhance a city's economic competitiveness, reduce local pollution and global greenhouse gas emissions, and promote inclusive development. These goals are at the heart of transit-oriented development (TOD), an urban form that is increasingly important to sustainable urban futures. This book uses a case study approach.
This report assesses climate risks and opportunities and proposes actions. It provides a synthesis of evidence of climate variability and change, impacts, and uncertainties associated with climate change that may affect Tunisias water, land, agriculture, and coastal zones. The report then provides a detailed analysis of the potential impacts of climate change on food security and gross domestic product (GDP) as well as on local populations looking in particular at seven governorates. The report goes on to discuss possible policy options for reducing human vulnerability and for better adapting to climate variability and change. The report provides guidance to policy makers in Tunisia in three ways. First, it provides a Framework for Action on Climate Change Adaptation, represented by an adaptation pyramid. Second, it puts forward a typology of policy approaches that are relevant to the region in order to facilitate the formulation of effective policy responses by decision makers. Finally, a matrix is provided, which outlines key policy recommendations.
Innovation, particularly technological innovation, is widely touted as a panacea for development. As more and more countries begin to formulate policies that support innovation, they expect to find a magic bullet in the experiences of the advanced and some of the more dynamic less developed economies. But emulating foreign success stories and models is not so easy. Moreover, the developing world is extremely diverse, ranging from giant powerhouse economies to poor fragile states. Nevertheless, this publication presents some useful principles and illustrations that can help inform effective approaches to innovation in the difficult institutional and business climates of low- and medium-income countries.
This paper explores a potential deliverable that emerged from submissions to the Rio+20 compilation document – the development of a green economy knowledge‐sharing platform. The paper provides an overview of existing platforms and initiatives, and proposes potential aims/objectives, governance arrangements, and structural components for a green economy platform based on existing initiatives and best‐ practice literature.
The paper concludes that a comprehensive green economy knowledge‐sharing platform would need clear aims/objectives, an effective governance structure, and a number of key structural components:
• A mechanism for promoting connections, networks and partnerships;
• A brokering mechanism to match ‘knowledge seekers’ with ‘knowledge providers’;
• An online data platform and green economy toolbox;
• Expert focal points or hubs for sectoral or cross‐sectoral issues; and
• A financing facility for developing countries.