This article explores the regional disputes on the shared river and the degree of cooperation that exists. Despite prevailing negative impacts – i.e., the changes in sedimentation and the river flow regimes – caused by upstream dam construction in Turkey and affecting downstream Georgia, the article finds that the creation of a regional electricity market seems to be opening up a new avenue for cooperation between Turkey and Georgia also on the so far unilaterally utilized river.
Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) describes the situation where the user of an environmental service, such as water purification, pays the landowners who provide that service. For PES to exist, there must be a clearly defined user and supplier, as well as a number of other necessary conditions, which are defined in this document using a summary of current sources. Particular attention is paid to how these conditions currently obtain within the UNECE region. The range of forest environment services is explored through fourteen detailed case studies, which examine best practice in promoting PES. Political and public relations implications of PES are discussed at length, and recommendations include the need for clarity about where PES may be a useful tool in moving towards a green economy and where other methods may be more appropriate.
This report highlights the main outcomes of the European Union Water Initiative (EUWI) in the Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) countries. Section 2 highlights specific achievements at the country level in the context of national policy dialogues facilitated by the OECD and UNECE. Section 3 focuses on water diplomacy, highlighting progress in the context of transboundary water management and the regional dimension of the EUWI EECCA. Section 4 looks ahead and suggests avenues for future work in the region, highlighting where the input of the EUWI and EU member states can make a difference. Section 5 describes how National Policy Dialogues work as a process for achieving policy reform. In addition, country fiches highlight in more detail specific achievements at country level in the context of national policy dialogues facilitated by the OECD and UNECE.
This policy manuel aims to help the European Union’s Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine – design or reform economic instruments related to environmentally harmful products. Within the broad range of economic instruments to promote greener growth, this manual addresses instruments directed at changing consumer purchasing behaviour (product taxes) and those targeting improvements in waste generation and management (deposit-refund systems and extended producer responsibility schemes). The main target audience of this policy manual includes government stakeholders (ministries of environment, economy and finance) as well as business communities, non-governmental and academic institutions in EaP countries.
Public expenditure remain crucial for addressing environmental problems and, more broadly, promoting a greener model of development in the countries of Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA). Traditionally, however, the environmental sector in the EECCA countries has not been very effective in attracting domestic public financing. As the global economic and financial crisis imposes ever-tighter constraints on public budgets in the region, and as donors shift to new approaches of delivering aid via country systems, this sector becomes increasingly vulnerable to underfunding.