Mohamed T. El-Ashry

Addressing the Global Water and Environment Crises through Integrated Approaches to the Management of Land, Water and Ecological Resources

Abstract As the world approaches the 30-year anniversary of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment and prepares to review progress made in the decade since Dublin and Rio, we are confronted with results that are mostly disappointing. When it comes to addressing the water resources crisis, the 1990s may well be remembered as a decade of debate rather than action. Recent assessments suggest a doubling to almost two-thirds of the worlds population experiencing some water stress by 2025 and increased demands to withdraw more water for a new “green revolution” for irrigated agriculture. Both of these will accelerate environmental degradation to a new crisis level while the existing degradation that resulted from the first “green revolution” still awaits remedial action both in the North as well as in the South. It is now clear that the global water crisis and the global environment crisis are linked and are being exacerbated by unprecedented global pressure resulting from over-consumption, population growth, globalization of economic systems and trade, reduction in development assistance, and failure to enact necessary policy, legal, and institutional reforms. This article makes the case that the traditional sector-by-sector approach to economic development is a key contributor to the two global crises. Lessons of experience are presented on policy, legal, and institutional reforms necessary to address the inter-linked crises through integrated approaches to managing land and water resources and their biological diversity. Water pricing reforms, reductions in damaging subsidies, land tenure reforms, community participation, and institutional reforms are necessary. There is a need to build upon the linkages and synergies among the three Rio conventions (climate, biodiversity, and desertification) in order to create new global driving forces for actions to address the crises holistically in the context of a countrys national sustainable development strategy. The Global Environment Facility (GEF) and its implementing agencies stand ready with incremental cost grant financing to assist countries willing to undertake the reforms for integrated basin management of land, water and biological resources as they transition towards sustainable development

The Road from Rio: Implications of the UN Conference on Environment and Development for the World Bank

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) articulated the international communitys commitment to a policy of sustainable development. In response to the fact that, too often, policies have not been successfully translated into effective action, UNCED produced Agenda 21, providing a blueprint to guide the implementation of national and international policies in support of sustainable development. The World Banks strategy for implementing the environmental concerns embodied in Agenda 21 is fourfold: to incorporate a comprehensive environmental assessment procedure to ensure that the investment projects that it helps to finance take account of environmental considerations; to exploit the powerful synergies between poverty alleviation, economic efficiency and the enhancement of environmental quality; to assist member countries in setting priorities, building institutions, and formulating specifically targeted policies for sound environmental stewardship; and to support the Global Environment Facility as both a financial resource and an institution specifically designed to serve the interests of the world as a whole. The Banks commitment to promoting sustainable development, of course, must be complemented by similar commitments from the private sector to provide capital and technology, and from international development institutions to play a major role in bringing about a new era of international cooperation.

National Policies to Promote Renewable Energy

Abstract The world is entering a new energy era marked by concerns over energy security, climate change, and access by the poor to modern energy services. Yet the current energy path is not compatible with sustainable development objectives. Global demand for energy will continue to grow; so will CO2 emissions. Achieving a low-carbon energy world will require an unprecedented technological transformation in the way energy is produced and used. That transformation has begun, as renewables capacity continues to grow, prices continue to fall, and shares of global energy from renewables continue to increase. Government policies are the main driver behind renewable energys meteoric growth. Still, the world is tapping only a small amount of the vast supply of renewable energy resources. There is broad consensus that the role of these resources should be expanded significantly in order to meaningfully address energy security, energy access, and climate change.