Bibliothèque

This policy document provides an overview of issues related to sustainability from the perspective of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). In particular, it reviews the main challenges faced by the countries of the region in their quest for sustainable development, with a focus on emerging trends related to increasing demands for infrastructure development, energy supply, and commodity exports, as well as opportunities offered by the global response to climate change. In all cases, the document highlights areas where a greater cooperation between the LAC and the European Union (EU) is possible. This document was prepared as a contribution from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to the process of dialogue between the regions.

This policy document represents a coordinated effort among several institutions and organizations in the Latin America and the Caribbean region to present the results of a joint reflection on the issue of water-based adaptation to climate change as part of a Regional Policy Dialog process. The main purpose of this Dialog is to communicate to politicians and decision makers – both within the water community and from other public policy areas relevant to the topic – and other actors involved, a series of key messages and recommendations that enable them to define, in an informed manner, public policies and corresponding actions on climate change adaptation. This document incorporates comments and suggestions obtained through presentation and discussion in three international events.

This analytical report analyzes climate change impact on tourism in the Caribbean. It highlights several implications for this sector, including altered seasonality, desertification and floods, damages caused by increased incidence of natural hazards, coastal erosion and loss of beach areas, and loss of natural and archeological attractions. Therefore climate change not only threatens the environment but also the economy of the Caribbean and the livelihoods of its people. The report presents some political responses to this challenge and concludes with recommendations for government and business decision makers and regional groups in the tourism sector.

This technical document reviews water charge instruments for water management. After presenting a summary review of the literature, this study analyzes water charge experiences in France, Mexico and Brazil. Each country evaluation is organized along four guidelines covering topics of relevance for the application of a policy instrument, namely: (i) policy analysis phase (the policy setting in which the water economic instrument (EI) was introduced as a mean of achieving policy goals); (ii) instrument design phase (the theoretical, institutional and legal basis on which the EI was conceived); and (iii) instrument implementation phase (successes and failures of the EI application and its review process).

This technical document includes four case studies commissioned in two Asian and two Latin American cities as part of a project on climate instruments in the transport sector. It analyzes nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs) in Jakarta (Indonesia), Mexico City (Mexico), Belo Horizonte (Brazil), and Hefei (People’s Republic of China). Taken together, the studies demonstrate that NAMAs in the transport sector have the potential to achieve significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions and provide a substantial contribution to sustainable development. They also give the first on-the-ground evidence of the policies and guidelines that will need to be in place in any post-2012 climate agreement for transport NAMAs to achieve their full potential.

This analytical report gives an assessment of the current state of affairs with regard to the impact on the transport sector in developing countries by the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Clean Technology Fund (CTF). Based on desk analysis and case studies in Asian and Latin American cities, this study also provides recommendations for the successful scale-up of climate finance and capacity building, particularly by the use of Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions for the transport sector.

This technical document is intended as a preliminary, qualitative analysis of existing instruments to promote non-conventional renewable energy (NCRE) in Chile. After a short introduction, section 2 provides a description of the electricity sector and energy policy objectives for NCRE in the country. Section 3 focuses on the identification and analysis of regulatory instruments and incentives and section 4 discusses key issues to promote a more significant development of this energy. Finally, section 5 concludes and provides both general and specific recommendations to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

This slide presentation discusses disaster risk reduction in Latin America and the Caribbean. It particular it presents: 1) hazards locations and incidence in the region; 2) a framework for the application of disaster risk reduction proposals; 3) sound environmental and natural resources management to reduce vulnerability; 4) economic instruments for environmental and disaster risk reduction.

This policy documents serves as a guiding instrument to scale-up the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)’s support for actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change within Latin-America and the Caribbean (LAC). Leveraging the IDB’s institutional strengths and its competitive advantages, the strategy promotes the development and use of a range of public and private sector financial and non-financial instruments for strengthening LAC’s institutional, technical, and financial capacity to address climate change. It seeks to provide guidance for the Bank’s dialogue with governments, civil society, and the private sector concerning regional and national climate policy agendas. It also integrates public and private financing and capacity building into a single framework for climate action, and orients the Bank’s efforts to strengthen and consolidate its own capacities, readiness and comparative advantages. Finally, it provides a mechanism to mainstream climate change sustainability objectives into the Bank’s operations.

This policy document outlines the basic approach of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on financing the construction of landfills and biogas plants. This document is divided into five sections, namely: (i) a description of landfills in Latin America and the Caribbean and environmental aspects related to its construction and operation, (ii) a description of the generation of biogas from landfills (iii) a summary of existing technologies for the construction of biogas plants and their economic implications, (iv) a review of the practices of other multilateral development banks and countries regarding financing of landfills and biogas plants, and (v) the proposed approach IDB to finance biogas plants.

This policy document outlines the basic elements of the approach that the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) applies to finance new cement plants. It is divided into four parts: (i) sectoral trends and the need to increase cement production; (ii) types of cement works and related environmental issues, particularly climate change; (iii) other multilateral development banks approaches with respect to financing cement factories and current focus of the cement sector on climate change; and (iv) the IDB proposed approach.

The technical document outlines issues that need to be investigated in order to produce an informed assessment of what strategies and policies Latin America and its international organizations should pursue with respect to climate change. It aims to make three contributions: i) identifying actions that could be valuable but have not been highlighted; ii) advising on actions that could be ineffective and costly, given limited resources; and iii) recommending an evaluation of what elements require further analysis before objectives are translated into action. After introducing the issues involved, the report presents a simplified model to help explain the interaction of climate change with the economy. The discussion then turns to several of the most important relevant issues in terms of the model. Finally, individual items are discussed in order to construct an agenda.

This technical document aims to present an overview of climate change developments, in particular with regards to carbon markets under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The document is divided into three sections. The first section describes the history of the climate change negotiations. Section two presents an overview of the decisions adopted at international meetings such as the Bonn Agreements and Marrakech Accord. The third section analyzes the carbon credit market. The first part of this section briefly presents the available information regarding real carbon credit transactions, while the second section focuses on the literature review of several theoretical models and presents the theoretical estimates of the price and size of the carbon market.

This slide presentation introduces climate change interventions in the Caribbean. Islands in the region are likely to suffer from sea level rise and floods, coastal erosion and deterioration, water scarcity and non-native species invasion, among others. The document presents adaptation and mitigation measures, including projects and activities currently under development.

This slide presentation reports on climate change expected impact in the Caribean region. It highlights that the area is vulnerable but that modelling could provide useful information on how to approriate respond to this challenge. It also presents the Caribbean Modelling Initiative and some of its results. It concludes listing next steps.

This slide presentation reports on climate change adaptation and water resources in the Caribbean region. It presents data on weather modifications, temperatures and rainfall trends. It highlights a general drying in the region and notes that decision making should take these issues into account and develop effective actions to cope with climate change.

This activity report collects the proceedings of a workshop on Climate Change and Urban Planning, held in Rotterdam, from 28-30 May 2009. It brought together 38 participants representing planning universities and planning professionals and aimed to: reach a common understanding on how better urban planning and design can contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation, especially in the Developing Countries context; agree on how best to equip urban planners and related professionals, especially in developing countries to deal with climate change and to conceptualize the core elements of a toolbox; and reach a common understanding on how urban planning and design schools can better address climate change as an integral part of their curricula.

This activity report collects the proceedings of a Cities and Climate Change Academy African workshop, held in Kampala, Uganda, from 3-5 May 2011. The meeting brought together African climate change experts teaching urban courses at the university level or conducting research in the field of climate change. Experts exchanged their experiences and good practices in teaching climate change in urban programmes, discussed pilot interventions of the Cities and Climate Change Initiative (CCCI) in Kampala. In depth discussions on modules on Climate Change and Housing, Climate Change and Poverty, Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction and Urban Climate Change Vulnerability Assessments were held.

This activity report collects the proceedings of a university seminar workshop entitled “Strengthening Climate Change in Planning Education” held from 1-5 March 2010 at Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines. This seminar-workshop specifically sought to mainstream climate change into the existing syllabi and curricula of the University of Philippines School of Urban and Regional Planning and to eventually provide continuing professional education/development for urban planners and practitioners at the local level, particularly among local government units and at the regional level, specifically in Asia and the Pacific.

This activity report collects the proceedings of a global workshop entitled “Strengthening Climate Change in Urban Education: Cities and Climate Change Academy” held in Bonn, Germany, on 1-2 June 2011. It drew 34 participants representing planning universities from around the world. The objectives of the workshop were: to exchange experiences on how to strengthen education on climate change and cities at university level; to reach a common understanding on how to develop generic course material for the Cities and Climate Change Academy; to agree on priority topics for the development of initial courses; to agree on partnerships (including universities from the North and South) for the development of selected courses; and to agree on a road map for 2011/2012.