25 January 2009: The World Bank’s Global Gas Flaring Reduction partnership (GGFR) welcomed Qatar as the first Gulf State to join the global effort to reduce the flaring of gas associated to oil production.
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22 January 2009: The World Bank Board of Directors has approved a US$30 million interest-free loan to strengthen the energy sector in Honduras. The project’s three components are: building the national electric power company’s (Empresa Nacional de Energía Eléctrica (ENEE)) management and commercial capacity; renewing and rehabilitating distribution equipment, including the removal of polluted transformers; and institutional strengthening and corporate governance.
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22 January 2009: The Asia-Pacific Business Forum 2009/Climate Game Change – Innovations and Solutions for Climate Change Adaptation convened in Bangkok, Thailand, on 21 January 2009. The Forum was organized by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), and it brought together 300 representatives from the private sector, government, civil society and international organizations, with the aim of promoting new partnerships, ideas and resolve for combating climate change.
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January 2009: South Centre, an intergovernmental think tank of developing countries, has released a report entitled “Developed Country Climate Financing Initiatives Weaken the UNFCCC,” which examines the level and delivery vehicles of public financing for climate change actions in developing countries from Annex I parties of the UNFCCC.
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14 January 2009: Bert Hofman, Country Director, World Bank Philippine Country Office, has signed the Emission Reductions Purchase Agreement (ERPA) for the Roxol Ethanol Plant Wastewater Treatment and Methane Gas Recovery Project under the World Bank-managed Community Development Carbon Fund Facility.
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6 January: The first Meeting of the Commission of Experts of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) President on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System took place at UN Headquarters in New York, US, from 4-6 January 2009. The recommendations adopted at the end of the meeting include the need for reforms to establish regulations that enable simultaneously pursuing long term objectives, such as sustainable and equitable growth, responsible use of natural resources and reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and more immediate concerns, including addressing the challenges posed by the food and financial crises.
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January 2009: A new paper, authored by Manmohan Parkash and published by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), entitled “Climate Change and Transport: Promoting Environmentally Sustainable Transport in the People’s Republic of China,” evaluates the state of China’s transport sector in light of volatile fuel prices and increasing greenhouse emissions.
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January 2009: Ivan Hascic and Nick Johnstone (Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) Environment Directorate) and Antoine Dechezleprêtre, Matthieu Glachant and Yann Ménière, CERNA, Mines ParisTech, have co-authored a new study entitled “Invention and Transfer of Climate Change Mitigation Technologies on a Global Scale: A Study Drawing on Patent Data.”
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January 2009: The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) is organizing an expert meeting on “Maritime transport and the climate change challenge.” The meeting, which will convene from 16-18 February 2009, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, aims to help identify relevant policy actions for climate change mitigation and adaptation in maritime transport, while furthering other objectives such as transport efficiency, trade facilitation, trade competitiveness and sustainable development.
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8 January 2009: The World Bank has released a guide on “Policy and Institutional Reforms to Support Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in Development Programs.” The publication offers targeted guidance on the linkages between the design of development programs and the objectives of adapting to climate change and limiting emissions of greenhouse gases.
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