Local organisations have a major role in addressing these realities, helping poor groups access entitlements and engage with government. They may be local NGOs, grassroots organisations of the poor, or even local governments or branches of higher levels of government. But they function on a local level, have intimate knowledge of the local context and should be accountable to local people.
While the precise contribution of biofuels to surging food prices is difficult to know, policies promoting production of the current generation of biofuels are not achieving their stated objectives of increased energy independence or reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Reaching the congressionally mandated goal of blending 15 billion gallons of renewable fuels in gasoline by 2015 would consume roughly 40 percent of the corn crop (based on recent production levels) while replacing just 7 percent of
India is a Party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Convention enjoins Parties to communicate information about the implementation of the Convention, taking into account their common but differentiated responsibilities and their specific national and regional development priorities, objectives and circumstances.
Coal is abundant and affordable in the Asia Pacific region, and for the foreseeable future could be used to meet the region's growing energy needs, but what becomes of those needs when air is too dirty to breathe; water is too polluted to drink; soil too contaminated to grow crops; land is unfit for habitation; and global warming unleashes unimaginable environmental disasters?
This publication provides an overview of key facts and societal challenges related to economic development, future energy demand and the impact that demand could have on the climate system.The focus of this publication is on the world's use of energy and its related impacts.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in its Fourth Assessment Report, re-emphasized the need for adaptation to address the impacts of climate change on lives and livelihoods across all sectors.
Agricultural water management (AWM) is generally perceived as a key step towards improving low yielding smallholder farming systems in sub-Sahara Africa, South Asia and Latin America. This paper aims to give a first overview of
The landfill is an unavoidable component in MSW Management and its planning and design, construction, operation & maintenance involves technical skills and safety measures in terms of health and environmental protection.
In determining domestic water prices, policy makers often need to use information about the demand side rather than only relying on information about the supply side. Household surveys have frequently been employed to collect demand-side information. This paper presents a multiple bounded discrete choice household survey model. It discusses how the model can be utilized to collect and analyze information about the acceptability of different water prices by different types of households, as well as households
In assessing the extent of poverty in a given country one naturally focuses on a poverty line that is considered appropriate for that country. However, poverty lines vary across countries in terms of their purchasing power, and they have an economic gradient, such that richer countries tend to adopt higher standards of living in defining poverty. This report presents a major overhaul to the World Bank
The workshop,
This Agricultural Outlook offers an assessment of agricultural markets covering cereals, oilseeds, sugar, meats, milk and dairy products over the period 2008 to 2017. For the first time, it also includes an analysis of and projections for global biofuel markets for bioethanol and biodiesel, facilitating the discussion of interactions between these markets and those for the main agricultural feedstocks used in their production.
This study aims to provide policymakers with an overview of biofuel certification schemes that are already in place or being developed, including: benefits and drawbacks of such schemes;
This report focuses on how foreign policy can help to further EU objectives on climate change and clean energy, looking specifically at how the EU can more effectively partner with large developing emitters in supporting a global transformation to cleaner energy systems over the first half of this century.
The annual Asian Development Outlook provides a comprehensive economic analysis of 44 economies in developing Asia and the Pacific. This edition examines trends and prospects in Central Asia, East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific. This year's theme on workers in developing Asia spotlights three issues. Will the region reap the demographic advantages of its many young people about to enter the workforce? Can it resolve its silent crisis in terms of its skills shortages?
This report presents results of ambient air quality monitoring carried out during the year 2007 at various monitoring stations under National Air Quality Monitoring Programme (NAMP). Four pollutants namely sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, respirable suspended particulate matter and suspended particulate matter are monitored regularly at various monitoring locations. The air quality is described in terms of low, moderate, high and critical levels based on an exceedence factor.
The major objectives of this policy are to: adopt integrated and multi-sectoral approach for planning, development and management of water resources; consider micro watersheds as the basic unit for the conservation and optimal utilization of water resources for achieving resources sustainability; integrate the problems and prospects of water resource systems by considering river basin as the basic unit; emphasize the importance of comprehensive watershed conservation and management plan, water quality management plan, long-term sub-basin and river basin operation and monitoring plan and state
The information and communication technology (ICT) sector in the last twenty years or so in India has revolutionized life of one and all, ratcheting a viral effect on electronic manufacturing industries leading to phenomenal growth in terms of both, volume and applications. Digital development has become the new mantra having its all engulfing footprints every where. The report focuses only on the policies and practices of electronic brands on the Indian market.
The Eleventh Five Year Plan has set an ambitious target of increasing total investment in infrastructure from around 5% of GDP in the base year of the Plan 2006-07 to 9% by the terminal year 2011-2012.
This paper presents the background and policy issues surrounding development of a commercial market for captured carbon dioxide, and seeks to foster among policymakers a deeper understanding of : both the generation and carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies involved, as well as their costs; the technical and regulatory barriers to deployment of those technologies, and the opportunities CCS
