By 2050, two-thirds of the planet's population will live in urban centers, and nearly 90 percentof the 2.5 billion new urban dwellers will live in Africa and Asia. The world's urban areas wereresponsible for around 70 percent of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2013, and that numbercould grow...

Results-based financing is a well-established financing modality in the health and education sectors but it is still in an early stage of deployment in the area of climate change. This report reviews 74 results-based climate financing (RBCF) programs implemented in developing countries with an...

This report focuses on promoting low-carbon rice production systems in Vietnam. There are many sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions within the agricultural sector in Vietnam, including along value chains and within the whole agri-food context. However, because rice production is so...

This retrospective examines how the World Bank's strategic use of climate-related trust funds has enabled it to play an outsized role in catalyzing climate action worldwide for nearly 30 years. By looking back at the history of climate and carbon finance, with a focus on the pioneering role of...

In the Kyrgyz Republic, access to reliable and affordable heating is critical given the cold and long winters in its mountainous regions. With central heating solutions such as district heating limited to the capital city Bishkek and other urban areas, over 80 percent of households resort to...

Thailand needs to avoid the high-carbon growth path of many developed countries and, instead, take a low-carbon growth path. A green low-carbon growth path is in Thailand's own interest as it can simultaneously tackle local environmental degradation, global climate change, and energy security...

This study delivers evidence of the main causes of premature deaths from air pollution in Almaty and Nur-Sultan, two major cities in Kazakhstan, and offers guidance on cost-effective solutions to prevent them while making the cities better prepared for a low-carbon future. The report provides...

The Philippines is an archipelago comprised of 7,107 islands with a humid climate and a topography characterized by mountainous terrain bordered by narrow coastal plains. Considered one of the most biologically rich and diverse countries in the world, the Philippines also has one of the world's...

The Paris Agreement provides a framework for all countries - both developed and developing - to voluntarily adopt individual targets, elaborated in their nationally determined contributions (NDCs). This effectively introduces commitments on the country in the sectors covered by their NDCs....

Carbon prices are needed to incorporate climate change costs into economic decision making. Carbon pricing should be included as part of a broader arsenal of tools to achieve domestic climate targets, but it is not a silver bullet: other policy instruments and investments (for example, public...