Latest Documents

This toolkit, based on existing good practice, aims to help governments in the EU’s Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) to design and implement key instruments to promote environmental compliance and green business practices among small and medium-sized enterprises. Reducing the environmental impact of SMEs in both manufacturing and services is a key success factor in greening the economy. At the same time, improving environmental performance is a significant business opportunity for SMEs as important suppliers of goods and services. Developed under the EaP GREEN project, this report will be of interest to environmental and economic ministries, as well as business associations and non-governmental and academic institutions in EaP countries.

More than 8 000 large multi-purpose water infrastructures (MPWIs) around the world contribute to economic development, as well as water, food and energy security, encompassing all human-made water systems including dams, dykes, reservoirs and associated irrigation canals and water supply networks. Focused on the specific case of the Shardara MPWI located in Low Syr-Darya Basin, South Kazakhstan and Kyzyl-Orda oblasts (provinces) of Kazakhstan, this report looks at the choice and design of MPWI investment strategies that ensure a high economic return on investments and potential bankability, based on application of a computer model and lessons learned from 15 international MPWI case studies.

This study assesses the use of economic instruments for water resources management in Georgia and considers options for reform following the 2014 signature of an Association Agreement with the EU committing to alignment with the EU’s Water Framework Directive. This includes the systematic use of economic instruments, including water pricing, to recover the cost of water services provided to households, industry and farmers, among other measures. Three main economic instruments are recommended in this study: 1) the introduction of a licensing regime and charges for both surface water and groundwater abstraction, 2) the restoration of a licencing and charging regime for all forms of water pollution, and 3) more rigorous enforcement of these measures, including more active monitoring and higher fines for offenders. Implementing these measures will be greatly facilitated by the enactment of the new Water Law now being examined by the government of Georgia.

This report discusses key issues surrounding finance mobilisation for achieving Georgia’s climate change and green growth targets, and new investment opportunities for developing its capital market. The report focuses particularly on finance for climate change mitigation from various sources – private and public, national and international – but remains relevant for other issues around the country’s green growth agenda, such as energy productivity, air pollution prevention, climate change adaptation, better waste management, conservation of natural resources, and the technologies and innovations that help tackle these issues.

The water supply and sanitation (WSS) sector in Moldova is not financially sustainable: tariffs do not typically cover operational costs and capital investments are heavily funded by external development partners. This report analyses several options for streamlining and strengthening domestic financial support mechanisms (DFSMs) in terms of both supply and demand, discusses different scenarios and recommends a number of actions to ensure effective DFSM implementation, notably: 1) sufficient investment for the implementation of targets and obligations set in the national strategies, the Association Agreement with the EU, as well as Moldova’s international commitments (water-related Sustainable Development Goals, and the 'Water-to-all' commitment); 2) the financial sustainability of operators; and 3) the affordability of WSS services for end-users, especially low-income segments of the population.

This report assesses the state of Armenia’s sanitation services, which are in poor shape, and proposes ways forward for reforming the sector by: ensuring equitable access by all and identifying solutions that work for the poorest and most remote communities; generating economies of scale and scope, and reducing both investment and operational costs for the efficient delivery of sanitation services; and moving towards sustainable cost recovery for the sanitation sector, by identifying how much funding can be mobilised from within the sector and how much external transfers are required. The state of Armenia’s sanitation services are inadequate, with 51% of the population in rural areas using unimproved facilities, causing direct damage to the environment and exposing inhabitants to health risks, and better access but degraded sewerage-system infrastructure in urban areas, posing health hazards due to potential cross-contamination between sewage and drinking water. According to preliminary estimates, EUR 2.6 billion of investments will be required to meet Armenia’s sanitation needs, with approximately EUR 1 billion needing to be spent in the next 7 to 10 years. Given the country’s current economic situation, this investment will have to be spread over time and targeted to avoid further deterioration of infrastructure and increase of the financing gap.

This report aims to shed light on how EECCA countries and development co-operation partners are working together to finance climate actions, using the OECD DAC database to examine finance flows by provider, sector, financial instrument, channel, etc. A significant amount was committed by international public sources to the 11 countries comprising the EECCA in 2013 and 2014 (i.e. USD 3.3 billion per year), but the scale of such finance varies considerably from country to country and is insufficient to achieve and strengthen their climate targets communicated through the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions COP21. In addition, while a range of climate-related policies have already been developed by the EECCA countries, the extent to which such policies are being effectively implemented and conducive to attracting climate finance is still unclear. In this respect, this report proposes a set of questions for the EECCA countries to self-assess their readiness to seize opportunities to access scaled-up climate finance from various sources: public, private, international and domestic.

A major challenge facing the Republic of Buryatia, subject of the Russian Federation, is how to balance the task of protecting Lake Baikal – a unique water object and ecological system included in the UNESCO list of World Natural Heritage Areas – with the need for dynamic and sustainable socio-economic development of the republic.  This requires streamlining and improving water policy jointly with economic, administrative, information and other policy instruments. The recommendations in this report aim to help achieve this objective. They include the introduction of abstraction charges for irrigation water as a  natural resource; enhancement of state support to the water sector; and improvement of economic instruments for managing risks of water-related hazards (such as compulsory insurance and differentiated land tax rates in flood prone areas). A few innovative instruments are also recommended for pilot testing such as establishing limits for discharges of certain hazardous substances in a pilot area (e.g. Selenga river basin) and progressive development of market for tradable quotas for discharges of the 'capped' pollutants; and introducing a charge (tax) on toxic agricultural chemicals (pesticides, herbicides, etc.) and synthetic detergents so that to create incentives for the reduction of diffuse water pollution.

This report presents recommendations on the reform of economic instruments for water resources management in Kyrgyzstan, specifically on tariffs for urban water supply and sanitation (WSS) and irrigation water, pollution charges, surface water abstraction charges for enterprises (consumptive and non-consumptive uses), specific land tax rates for the Issyk-Kul biosphere reserve, as well as taxes and customs duty on products contributing to water pollution. For each instrument, alternative reform options are identified and assessed, and preferred options put forward, with an action plan.