This policy note focuses on analyzing critical institutional and planning issues affecting Dhaka's Metropolitan Area, and suggests policy recommendations for introducing sound urban environmental planning to improve the quality of life by mitigating and reversing environmental degradation. The...

One in three cities is at high risk of water stress. The 2030 Water Resources Group (WRG) helps cities prevent, respond to, and recover from water crises. This is done by facilitating partnerships between governments and businesses to manage water more effectively and create resilient and...

This note describes Carbon Monitor Cities 2.0, a new approach to near-real-time monitoring of city-level greenhouse gas emissions from various sectors without the need for local data collection. With support from the City Climate Finance Gap Fund, the World Bank piloted this approach for 11...

Urban sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Brazilian cities are growing. At the national level, the dominance of greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation in Brazil masks the fact that emissions from other sectors, like Energy, Transport and Waste, are growing quite rapidly in cities....

Cities are key to unlocking a climate-smart future for all, as they account for more than 50 percent of the global population, about 70 percent of global energy-related CO2 emissions and 80 percent of global GDP. Urban centers' share of emissions is expected to grow as the urban population is...

This report reviews the application of the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) to policies and draws lessons from it. The principal conclusion is that current SEA approaches, based on EIA methodology, of the sample reviewed have some influence on policy design but it is difficult to...

Consultation is a two-way communication process by which the knowledge and views of affected peoples, NGOs, the private sector and other interested parties are taken into account in development decision-making. In the case of EAs, the assumption is often made that such involvement is not...

The Sustainable Development Network (SDN) calls for elevating the environment into upstream processes such as policy, programmatic, and investment dialogue. In its 2002 environment strategy, the Bank committed to use strategic environmental assessments (SEAs), an environmental planning tool for...