Pakistan experienced severe flooding
after torrential monsoon rains hit southern Sindh and the
adjoining areas of Punjab and north-eastern Balochistan in
August 2011. Flash floods triggered by the monsoon rain
caused severe damage to infrastructure in the affected
areas. Entire villages and urban centers have been flooded,
homes have been destroyed, and over a million acres of crops
and agricultural lands have been damaged. A Damage and Needs

This paper reviews dynamic general
equilibrium models in order to collect insights on the
interaction between economic growth and environmental
issues. The authors discuss the Ramsey model and extend it
for natural resource inputs and pollution, as well as for
endogenous technical change. Green growth becomes within
reach if there is good substitution, a clean backstop
technology, a small share of natural resources in gross

The main objective of the assessment is
to determine how Poland's environmental and social
safeguard systems can be used in place of the corresponding
Bank safeguards, at sector, sub-national, or country level,
and how it will apply to current and future Bank-financed
operations in Poland. This assessment will be done through a
safeguard diagnostic review which involves: (i) an
equivalence analysis, to determine if the Poland legal and

This book is about development and
measuring development progress. While precise definitions
may vary, development is, at heart, a process of building
wealth, the produced, natural, human, and institutional
capital which is the source of income and wellbeing. A key
finding is that it is intangible wealth, human and
institutional capital, which dominates the wealth of all
countries, rising as a share of the total as countries climb

Linking farmers to markets is widely
viewed as a milestone towards promoting economic growth and
poverty reduction. However, market and institutional
imperfections along the supply chain thwart perfect vertical
and spatial price transmission and prevent farmers and
market actors from getting access to information,
identifying business opportunities and allocating their
resources efficiently. This acts as a barrier to market-led

The forces unleashed by the Arab
political awakening have the power to be transformational.
One critical parameter of success will be whether the Arab
political awakening is accompanied by a concurrent economic
awakening. Economic integration through increased trade and
foreign direct investment (FDI) is one key means available
in the short to medium term to policy makers to put the
Partnership countries on a higher path of sustainable

This paper constitutes the third and final volume of a series of assessments of the World Bank Group's engagement with climate change issues. The first focused on World Bank involvement in policy issues related to greenhouse gas mitigation. It was mainly concerned with the potential for energy price reform and energy efficiency policies to yield dividends in growth, fiscal savings, and climate change mitigation. The second volume examined project-level lessons related to greenhouse gas mitigation.

This study provides estimates of social
and financial costs of environmental damage in India from
three pollution damage categories: (i) urban air pollution;
(ii) inadequate water supply, poor sanitation, and hygiene;
and (iii) indoor air pollution. It also provides estimates
based on three natural resource damage categories: (i)
agricultural damage from soil salinity, water logging, and
soil erosion; (ii) rangeland degradation; and (iii)

This country note for Georgia is part of
a series of country briefs that summarize information
relevant to climate change and agriculture for three
countries in the Southern Caucasus Region, with a particular
focus on climate and crop projections, adaptation options,
policy development and institutional involvement. The note
series has been developed to provide a baseline of knowledge
on climate change and agriculture for the countries

This paper surveys the state of
knowledge about the trade-related environmental consequences
of a country's development strategy along three
channels: (i) direct trade-environment linkages
(overexploitation of natural resources and trade-related
transport costs); (ii) 'virtual trade' in
emissions resulting from production activities; and (iii)
the product mix attributes of a 'green-growth'

Cote d'Ivoire was an economic
success story in the first twenty years of independence, but
a sharp reversal began in 1980 and by 1993 per capita
incomes was back to the level of 1960. Devaluation of the
African Financial Community (CFA) franc triggered an
economic rebound, but this was soon undermined by the
political crisis beginning in 1999. Just as the economy was
starting to move forward, a new crisis struck in early 2011,

Like other regions, Eastern Europe and
Central Asia is vulnerable to climate change and its
potential socioeconomic impacts. While all countries are
facing warmer temperatures, a changing hydrology, and more
extreme events (for example, floods and droughts) and are
concerned about the level of greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere, they differ in their financial and institutional
capacities to respond. Therefore, especially for the most