I started reading about the Aral Sea disaster in 1989 ahead of my first visit, as a student 
and tourist, to Uzbekistan, then still a Soviet republic. In Karakalpakstan, the autonomous republic in current-day Uzbekistan, the Aral Sea has all but disappeared. Where fishing communities once thrived, all that remains is a scarred, desert landscape. Rusted ships are perched precariously on piles of sand and salt, along with a potent, unhealthy mix of toxic pollutants from industrial agriculture.
Tag Archives: climate change
eC2: Developing the 2.0 version of the Climate Resilience Planning for Roads tool (CRP4R) in Haiti
Deadline: 01-Jul-2019 at 11:59:59 PM (Eastern Time – Washington D.C.)
The World Bank is now seeking a consulting firm to build upon CRP4R tool, develop the
version 2.0 and tailor it to the context in Haiti for the implementation of Project P163490. The new tool should also contemplate how to incorporate into the prioritization exercise feeder road segments chosen through Local Mobility Plans (LMPs) in the area of influence of the Project. This new feature of the model, using two different layers of choice, will necessitate several iterations with the Team.
In Small Island States, Resilient Transport is Providing a Lifeline Against Disasters
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Due to their size and location, Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are particularly
vulnerable to climate risk.
- When disaster strikes, damage to transport systems typically makes up a large share of overall losses, and is often one of the main obstacles to recovery.
- The World Bank is answering the call with unprecedented support to the transport sector in small island states. A total of eight transport projects have been approved in SIDS over the last year, all of which include a resilience component.
eC2: Nigeria Multi-Sector Investment Plan for Coastal Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation
Deadline: 17-Jun-2019 at 11:59:59 PM (Eastern Time – Washington D.C.)
As part of the World Bank’s West Africa Coastal Areas (WACA) Program, the objective of
this activity is to develop, in a participatory manner, a Multi-sectoral Investment Plan (MSIP) for coastal risk reduction and climate change adaptation. The MSIP will be an action plan for the development of the Nigerian coastal zone, integrating climate change adaptation and disaster risk management considerations, and focused on but not limited to coastal erosion, flooding, and pollution. The MSIP will take into account all sectors involved in the zone and their contribution, in the medium and long term, for the strategic development of coastal areas in Nigeria. The activity should delineate objective, prioritized investment needs for integrated coastal zone management, providing indicative/estimated financing requirements for priority interventions, and developing a “pre-design” for the highest priority investment in each state (across four states).
10 Years of Green Bonds: Creating the Blueprint for Sustainability Across Capital Markets
The phone call to the World Bank Treasury came out of the blue: in late 2007, a group of 
Swedish pension funds wanted to invest in projects that help the climate, but they did not know how to find these projects. But they knew where to turn and called on the World Bank to help. Less than a year later, the World Bank issued the first green bond—and with it, created a new way to connect financing from investors to climate projects.
Trees and forests are key to fighting climate change and poverty. So are women
According to IUCN’s ‘Global Forest Watch’, from 2001 to 2017, 337 million hectares of 
tropical tree cover was lost globally – an area the size of India.
So, we appear to be losing the battle, if not the war, against tropical deforestation, and missing a key opportunity to tackle climate change (if tropical deforestation were a country, it would rank 3rd in emissions) and reduce poverty. A key question, then, is what can forest sector investors, governments and other actors do differently to reverse these alarming trends?
Introducing the new representative at the Inter-American Development Bank: Bjorn Kuil
On August 1st Bjorn Kuil started as Senior Counselor at the Board of the Inter-American 
Development Bank, having previously held the position of senior policy officer at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs since October 2013. “Throughout my career in the public and private sector I’ve come to realize that finance can leverage relationships, mitigate risks, and plays an important catalytic role. It has become my mission working towards sustainable, inclusive economic development as this is an indispensable part of efforts to combat poverty and improve global living conditions in line with the Sustainable Development Agenda. When looking at all the challenges facing the world, including inequality, population migration, and climate change, there is a clear role for development finance in nearly all of them.”
Our children’s planet: What does their education have to do with climate change?
Our world is very different than our grandparent’s. In 1950, there were about 2.5 billion 
people; today, there are more than 7 billion. Overall, people are healthier, wealthier, and more secure.
But this has come at a cost. The stress on our planet has been immense. Human beings have dramatically altered the climate, changed the chemistry of the oceans, and triggered mass extinctions. The impact has been so great as to define an entirely new geological era — the Anthropocene, turbo charged by a “great acceleration” of population, economic growth and natural resource consumption since the 1950s.
Bracing for climate change – a matter of survival for the Maldives
For low-lying island states, the impacts of global warming and climate change can be a 
matter of survival. The irony is that while these states have not contributed much to greenhouse emissions, as they produce very little, they may face some of the worst consequences. The Maldives is no stranger to the risks from climate change. It is already witnessing an increase in intense rainfall and resultant flooding, cyclonic winds and storm surges. As one of the lowest-lying countries in the world, with all its people living a few meters above sea level and over two thirds of its critical infrastructure lying within 100 meters of the shoreline, a sea level rise of just a few meters will put the nation further at risk, endangering its relative prosperity.
eC2: Capacity building in support of weather, water and climate services in Mali and Niger
Deadline: 04-Feb-2019 at 11:59:59 PM (Eastern Time – Washington D.C.)
The World Bank is one of the implementing partners of the Climate Risk and Early 
Warning Systems (CREWS) initiative and through the CREWS initiative provides complementary technical assistance to the national hydrological and meteorological services of Mali and Niger in capacity building and institutional strengthening for national weather, water and climate services, early warning system. The World Bank is looking for a qualified consulting firm (incl. universities or similar institutions) to deliver technical assistance with this regard.
The overall objective of this assignment is to strengthen the capacity of the national hydro-meteorological services of Mali and Niger. More specifically, the consultancy has four main objectives: (a) Provide guidance for strengthening technical and human capacity of all relevant stakeholders in Mali and Niger; (b) Provide tailored short courses to strengthen the technical capacity of the technical experts of the national hydrometeorological services in Mali and Niger; (c) Provide guidance on the communication and awareness raising for effective weather, water and climate services in Mali and Niger; and (d) provide guidance on investment planning and public-private services for effective weather, water and climate services in Mali and Niger.
