The World Bank research program on climate change is guided by a strategic framework for development and climate change. It focuses on impacts and adaptation; mitigation; and international responses.

Research focus | Research themes 

Country Stakes in Climate Change Negotiations: Two Dimensions of Vulnerability
Piet Buys, Uwe Deichmann, Craig Meisner (World Bank); Thao Ton That (UNEP/GRID Geneva):
David Wheeler (Center for Global Development)
Climate Change 9(3): 288-305 (2009).  Dec. 2010 
This paper won the first annual prize for excellence awarded by the journal Climate Change. In announcing the award the panel of judges cited the paper's innovative focus on developing countries; construction of a comprehensive geo-referenced database of indicators; thorough analysis; and timeliness as an input for international negotiations on carbon emissions mitigation and adaptation assistance.

Different Paths to a Global Climate Agreement
A sector-focused approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions offers promising potential.
Research Digest, Spr. 2010

Climate and Agriculture: An Economic Analysis of Global Impacts, Adaptation and Distributional Effects (2009)

Examines how agriculture can adapt under a variety of climate change conditions for 22 countries across four continents, including both developed and developing economies.
More>>

 

World Development Report 2010: Development and Climate Change
September 2009 - Developing countries can shift to lower-carbon paths while promoting development and reducing poverty, but this depends on financial and technical assistance from high-income countries.
Report 

Fiscal Implications of Climate Change
Policies to meet climate change, to reduce climate change (through "mitigation"), and to meet a given change ("adaptation"), are to a large extent fiscal in nature. Current climate policy is biased toward instruments that spend fiscal revenue (subsidies), and against those that raise such revenue (emissions taxes used for mitigation)."
Working Paper 5956. Jan 2012

Market-Based Instruments for International Aviation and Shipping as a Source of Climate Finance
Today there is hardly any taxes on fuels and activity levels in international aviation and shipping. The sectors are attractive sources of additional climate finance revenue to be raised by 2020 as part of the Copenhagen accord. A $25 tax per ton CO2 is likely to raise about $12 billion from international aviation and $26 billion from international shipping, of which a total of at least $10 billion could be reserved for climate finance.
Working Paper 5950. Jan 2012

A Review of Solar Energy:  Markets, Economics and Policies
Solar energy has experienced phenomenal growth in recent years due to both technological improvements and government policies, however its share in the global energy supply mix is  almost negligible. Development and large-scale, market-driven deployment of solar energy technologies need to overcome a number of technical and financial barriers and will require continuation of potentially costly policy supports.
Working Paper 5845. Oct. 2011

Implications of a Lowered Damage Trajectory for Mitigation in a Continuous-Time Stochastic Model
To reduce anticipated damages from climate change, mitigation of greenhouse gases and adaptation to climate change are not necessarily substitutes.
Working Paper 5724. Jun. 2011

 Themes

Impacts and adaptation
Impacts of climate change on water, land, coastal areas; options for reducing adverse consequences of these impacts for economic development and human well-being.

• Coastal areas
• Extreme Weather 

Mitigation
Drivers of greenhouse gas emissions in energy and other sectors; the design of policies and measures for mitigating emissions.

• Emissions trading and taxes
• Low-carbon economic growth possibilities 
• Renewable energy
• Transport and emissions 
• Climate agreements and policy 

 

• Country stakes in climate negotiations 
• Agriculture

 

Related links
World Bank web sites and reports related to operational work on climate change.

• Bankwide topic page on climate change 
• Bank's strategic framework for development and climate change  
• Global Environment Facility - Climate Change 
• International Finance Corporation (IFC) work on climate change 
• International Development Association (IDA) work on climate change 
• World Development Report 2010: Development and Climate Change 
• Blog: Development in a Changing Climate

Mike Toman
mtoman@worldbank.org

 

Susmita Dasgupta
Uwe Deichmann 
Donald Larson
Jon Strand
Govinda Timilsina  

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The following policy research working papers are drawn from the World Bank's institutional archives. Each link opens a page with an abstract of the document and several download options. For working papers before 2007, please use document search at econ.worldbank.org/docsearch.