Policy work

Weather vulnerability is often assessed using historical data, but this can be very misleading in a world of changing climate. Weather refers to short-term atmospheric conditions, while climate is the weather averaged over a long period. With climate change, some places are becoming wetter, some drier, and extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, floods, droughts, and tropical cyclones, are becoming more likely. Hence, the nature of weather risks will vary considerably. Despite the magnitude of this shift, there is currently no widely accepted method for bringing climate change into catastrophe risk modeling. 

The objective of this note is to review, compare, and contrast the different techniques used in this literature to include climate change into vulnerability analysis. To do so, it summarizes recent research papers exploring how to bring climate change into catastrophe risk modeling. The note builds on this review to propose and explain a robust methodology and highlight its potential caveats. As such, this note is a first step towards unifying approaches and disseminating the analysis of climate change in vulnerability analysis. The method proposed in this note can be applied by researchers, economists, and public policy practitioners to study a wide range of topics, from the impact of climate change on diseases to stress-testing social protection programs.

The Cambodia Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) provides analysis and recommendations on how Cambodia can achieve sustained development while responding to climate change and the low-carbon transition. Cambodia has high development aspirations, aiming to become an upper-middle-income country by 2030 and a high-income country by 2050. Achieving these goals will not be easy and will require a more inclusive, diversified, and productive economy. Climate change could amplify existing development challenges, with potentially sizable impacts on growth, trade, debt, and poverty reduction, as Cambodia faces one of the world’s highest levels of exposure to floods and extreme heat. However, building climate resilience also offers an opportunity, not only to mitigate climate risks, but also to concurrently further development outcomes, as this report finds that adaptation measures in Cambodia have large development co-benefits. Moreover, Cambodia has made ambitious pledges in its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) and in its Long-term Strategy for Carbon Neutrality (LTS4CN). Delivering these commitments will require careful policy choices to mitigate transition risks and seize development opportunities. Finally, as a small, open economy highly dependent on trade and foreign direct investment (FDI), Cambodia will be highly affected by the accelerated decarbonization and changing consumption and production patterns in the rest of the world. With the right policy choices and a vibrant private sector, this could offer opportunities for export diversification, job creation, and growth.

To address the myriad challenges posed by global climate change, countries at all income levels have put in place a diverse set of policies over the past three decades. Many governments have already made significant progress in their efforts to decarbonize, creating a rich history of implementation experiences that provides important lessons for how to successfully advance climate policy goals in a variety of different economic, cultural, and political contexts. Despite this progress, the transition to a net zero future continues to face significant barriers, including the need for large investment, a lack of institutional capacity, and challenging political economy issues. ‘Reality Check: Lessons from 25 Policies Advancing a Low-Carbon Future’ identifies key policy approaches that countries are taking to decarbonize their economies. The report classifies policies into five categories: 1. Planning for a future with zero net emissions; 2. Getting the pricing and taxes right; 3. Facilitating and triggering transitions in key systems, such as energy and food; 4. Getting the finance flowing, particularly by incentivizing private sector investment; 5. Ensuring a just transition that protects the poor. ‘Reality Check: Lessons from 25 Policies Advancing a Low-Carbon Future’ fills a critical research gap by documenting low-carbon policy trends and providing a series of case studies across sectors and geographies. The 25 case studies furnish country contexts and policy details, examine results and impacts, and outline key takeaways and lessons learned for enabling further ambition in achieving emissions reductions. The report contributes to an evolving analytical agenda on how to reduce carbon emissions while achieving economic development and the strategic transition to a greener, more resilient, and more inclusive future.

Air pollution has profound impacts on welfare, causing more deaths globally than malnutrition, AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined. Poorer households are often more vulnerable due to residential sorting, limited access to healthcare, and financial constraints. This report comprehensively assesses the negative effects of air pollution in Tbilisi, including from a distributional point of view. In the Georgian capital, air pollution levels exceed international standards –the average monthly PM2.5 concentration in Tbilisi is 20 μg/m-3.