From transport to health, food to construction and textiles, plastics are among the most abundant materials in our economy. Globally, the plastic industry is valued at USD 600 billion and provides employment to millions of people worldwide. But plastic pollution has become a crisis of monumental proportions, with 8 million tons ending up in oceans annually. Around the world, different regions face unique challenges ranging from community awareness to waste and recycling capacity, to weak stakeholder engagement.

Healthy forests, landscapes, and terrestrial ecosystems provide services that are critical for people and economies, such as biodiversity habitat, clean water, climate regulation, erosion prevention, crop pollination, soil fertility, and flood control. Deforestation and forest and land degradation, however, are threatening these ecosystem services and reducing the productivity of 23% of global land cover. Land degradation impacts an estimated 3.2 billion people worldwide, with 40% of the world’s poorest live on degraded land.

Climate Action Peer Exchange (CAPE) is a forum for peer learning, knowledge sharing, and mutual advisory support. It brings together ministers and senior technical specialists from finance ministries across the world, as well as World Bank staff and other international experts, to discuss the fiscal challenges involved in implementing the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) established under the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Rapid urbanization has the potential to improve the well-being of societies. If managed prudently, it can transform the development course of economies. But the path of urbanization is also fraught with numerous human development challenges intensified by poverty, economic disparities, lack of housing and basic services, inefficient transport systems and lack of sustainable financing models. The world needs inclusive and sustainable urbanization as recognized by Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) - Goal #11: Sustainable Cities and Communities.

Over 80% of worldwide new coal-fired power plants due to begin operating between now and 2020 will be in middle-income countries in Asia: China, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines and Pakistan. Together with the existing plants in operation in these countries, this will lock-in 260 gigatons of carbon dioxide emissions over their remaining lifetimes, which would exceed the carbon budget available to the power sector to be consistent with limiting global warming within 2 degrees.

In 1995, with technical assistance from the World Bank, Indonesia introduced its Program for Pollution Control Evaluation and Rating (PROPER), the first such environmental rating and disclosure (ERD) initiative in the developing world. With experience from Indonesia, the World Bank helped introduce the concept to other countries, including Ghana, and eventually to the Indian State of Odisha. This made Odisha the first state to begin ranking pollution intensive industries.

As in many other East Asian countries, the number of people living in poverty in Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Vietnam has declined in the past decade. However, persisting poverty in less advantaged geographic areas and ethnic groups is still a challenge. The governments of the three countries were eager to gain practical lessons on innovative Community Driven Development (CDD) models that have been successful in several South Asian countries, such as Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka.

The earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12, 2010 resulted in a massive loss of lives and a complete breakdown of Haiti’s housing infrastructure. The government of Haiti had been unable to invest in long-term reconstruction given its immediate needs for emergency housing. It asked the World Bank for help in learning about community-based reconstruction measures. The World Bank facilitated a South-South Knowledge Exchange with Indonesia because of that country’s experience with community-driven development (CDD) in its post-tsunami and post-earthquake reconstruction.

Like other cities in rapidly industrializing Vietnam, fast-growing Ho Chi Minh City must invest in urban transportation, including new and better roads, a metro network, and a modern bus rapid transit (BRT) system. Lacking the full knowledge and skills needed to plan, build, and maintain such a transport network, Vietnam sought the help of the World Bank.