WRI Stories Feed: Governance & Access

Strengthening Ownership and Effectiveness of Climate Finance

Milap Patel — Thu, 16 May 2013 09:43:20 -0400

The Climate Investment Funds (CIFs), one of the world’s largest dedicated funding facilities for climate change mitigation/adaptation projects,…

Emerging REDD+ Programs Need Additional Emphasis on Land Tenure

Lauren Goers Williams — Mon, 13 May 2013 14:23:32 -0400

Since 2009, more than 30 countries have submitted proposals for REDD+ readiness grants to start addressing the…

New Jakarta Declaration Aims to Strengthen Rights to Environmental Information in Asia

Carole Excell — Thu, 09 May 2013 15:03:15 -0400

Increased industrialization in Asia has created countless hurdles for communities to protect themselves from pollution. Important government information—such as the amount of pollutants being discharged by nearby factories or results from local…

How Are China’s Overseas Investments Affecting the Environment?

Denise Leung — Thu, 09 May 2013 13:13:04 -0400

Chinese overseas investments are rapidly increasing. As of 2011, China’s outward foreign direct investments (OFDI) spread across 132 countries and regions…

The End of Poverty? The World Bank and the Shared Prosperity Agenda

Milap Patel — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 15:09:11 -0400

Within our lifetimes, the world could be free of widespread, extreme poverty, replaced instead with shared prosperity and environmental and fiscal balance. That was the vision World Bank President Jim Yong Kim outlined at his first…

More Transparency Needed to End Kyrgyzstan Energy Crisis

Sarah Martin — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 11:01:16 -0400

Worldwide, one out of every five people lacks access to modern electricity. Affordability, quality of service, and social and environmental impacts…

RELEASE: 14 Latin American and Caribbean Countries Adopt an Ambitious Plan of Action to Improve Access Rights in the Region

Lauren Zelin — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 17:17:15 -0400

Fourteen Latin American and Caribbean countries adopted an ambitious Plan of Action to improve access rights in the region, including access to information, public participation, and access to justice. The plan, which was approved at a meeting in Guadalajara, Mexico, on April 16-17, 2013, seeks to implement the Latin American and Caribbean Declaration on Principle 10 that was signed at the Rio +20 Conference in June 2012, under which countries agreed to work towards a regional instrument to improve access rights.

The meeting began with Colombia and Honduras signing on to the LAC Declaration, a major accomplishment for all parties. The 14 countries that have now signed on include: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay.

“The new Plan of Action shows political will to transform environmental justice and transparency in the region,” said Carole Excell, Senior Associate at the World Resources Institute and The Access Initiative. “It sets the pace and the agenda to tackle the challenges of negotiating a regional instrument to ensure access rights across Latin America and the Caribbean.”

Under the new 2013-2014 Plan of Action, the LAC countries have committed to:

Promote the Principle 10 Declaration and incorporate new signatories into the process;
Strengthen and highlight the progress made on rights of access to information, participation, and justice;
Promote active participation of civil society at the national level; and
Develop working groups to deliberate capacity-building and cooperation efforts, and determine the nature and scope of the regional instrument.

Ambassador Jose Balmaceda of Chile noted that the Plan of Action “is a strong political signal to the international community that we are responding in a responsible way to this commitment [to Principle 10] … It is the first time that government representatives from 14 countries and civil society sat down to debate – with transparency and trust – relevant issues for the future of the region. This is a testament to maturity in the region. We have been able to reach consensus on the Plan of Action that will allow us to move ahead on national processes and regional efforts. I am sure that this result will motivate other nations in the region to join the process.”

The Plan of Action includes a number of innovative provisions, including procedures for public participation in the regional process and its working groups. It will create opportunities for close South-to-South cooperation on rights to promote transparency, public participation, and access to justice, as well as a focus on increased support for effective implementation at the national level.

“We hope at the end of 2014 we can count on the development of an instrument on Principle 10 that establishes concrete actions to guarantee effective and informed participation to all citizens and communities of our region,” said Daniel Barragan, Ecuadorian Center for Environmental Law (Centro Ecuatoriane de Derecho Ambinental Ambiental), an environmental law NGO. “Soon we can have a voice and be a part of the decision making on the environment and natural resources.”

In addition to adopting the Plan of Action, members elected co-chairs to run the working groups. Costa Rica and Brazil were mandated to design the regional instrument on Principle 10 and Jamaica and Columbia were given the role to facilitate work on cooperation and capacity building.

Climate Finance in East Africa: Stories and Lessons

Louise Brown — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 10:02:29 -0400

This post originally appeared on the Climate Development and Knowledge Network’s (CDKN) website.

Having recently…

5 Steps to Improve the World Bank’s Social and Environmental Safeguards

Gaia Larsen — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 15:38:56 -0400

The World Bank’s annual spring meetings take place this week in Washington, D.C….

An Action Plan for Environmental Justice in Latin America and the Caribbean

Carole Excell — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 08:28:34 -0400

Without the right laws and safeguards in place, development can come at the expense of the environment and local communities. This point is especially evident in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Newspapers across the region regularly…