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Assessing national enabling framework conditions for urban climate finance : a tool and guide by CCFLA and Urban-Act
Get PDFEnabling framework conditions (EFCs) are essential for scaling urban climate finance because they provide regulatory clarity, strengthen institutional capacity, mitigate investment risks, promote stakeholder engagement, and improve access to finance to support long-term sustainability. By creating a conducive environment for climate finance, EFCs help unlock the potential of national and subnational entities to drive climate action and achieve global climate goals. The CCFLA/Urban-Act National Assessment Tool aims to enhance urban governments’ access to climate finance by assessing national EFCs. Introducing a standardized approach to understanding national EFCs and intergovernmental relationships can help identify potential areas for improvement. The tool’s primary target user group is national government officials, but it may also be useful to other stakeholders, including local governments and their partners, city networks, and NGOs
Managing the risks of foreign currency financing in Asia and the Pacific
Get PDFManaging currency risk is a serious challenge for developing countries that are not able to finance most of their financing needs in local currency. Currency risk can increase substantially the cost of servicing sovereign debts, potentially decreasing fiscal space for much needed investments in sustainable development, and lead to a higher default risk. This can make financing sustainable development and climate ambitions too expensive. Thus, given the urgency of scaling up finance for the achievement of the 2030 Agenda and the goals of the Paris Agreement, addressing the risk of foreign currency financing should be an urgent priority. To reduce exposure to foreign currency debt and associated currency risk, this policy brief discusses the importance of developing local currency bond markets and adopting sound macroeconomic policies. In addition, it highlights the importance of developing hedging tools to mitigate currency risk
The landscape of B2C e-commerce marketplaces in Lao People's Democratic Republic
Get PDFThis country brief is part of an eleven-part series exploring the landscape of B2C e-commerce marketplaces in various East Asian economies. This series offers in-depth insights into the traffic trends for active e-commerce websites, national established and emerging key players, main characteristics of the marketplaces, ease of online selling, the degree of specialization in terms of products as well as the products characteristics. For more project information visit https://www.unescap.org/projects/b2c Lao P.D.R. shows a moderate internet penetration rate (76%) and a limited proportion of its population purchases goods online (10%). Nevertheless, the density of B2C marketplaces is relatively high with a total of 53 B2C marketplaces for a population of 7.5 million (0.02% of the total traffic in the region studied).
Over the period 2019-2022, the traffic on the 53 B2C marketplaces dropped considerably from 12.5 million visits in 2019 to 4.8 million visits. Among them, online shopping malls account for the largest proportion of marketplaces (73.6%) and capture most of the traffic (76.5%).
The e-commerce market is largely dominated by international companies (91%), including first and foremost the United States (53%), and a commendable proportion are held by companies based in China (13%). Of the total 53 B2C marketplaces, Lao P.D.R. is third holding 9% of the operating companies.
The e-commerce traffic is highly concentrated with the Top 10 websites capturing 98.2% of the total traffic. This Top 10 is led by online shopping malls, 7 in total, and companies are mainly from China (3), the United States (3), and Lao P.D.R. (3).
Regarding the ease of selling on these B2C marketplaces, 74% of them allow foreign sellers to operate and 72% offer open registration to online sellers. A large proportion of these marketplaces are fully transactional (74%) but, as a corollary, this same proportion requires trading fees to sell online.
Lao P.D.R. has a balanced proportion of generic (53%) and specialized B2C marketplaces (47%). Among the 25 specialized marketplaces, 32% specialize in fashion, accessories, and shoes (capturing only 1% of the traffic). The traffic dynamics also show that consumers’ preferences lean toward buying groceries (90% of the traffic) and to a lesser extent towards automotive parts (6%). </p
Power market road map for Central and West Asia: Promoting Cross-Border Electricity Connectivity for Sustainable Development
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Stepping stones towards social protection and climate resilience in the Maldives
Get PDFThis report highlights the critical yet underexplored intersection between social protection policies and climate change policies and events in the Maldives. Despite their potential, social protection policies are rarely integrated into climate policies and vice versa. Vulnerable populations, particularly those in climate change hotspots, face escalating risks from sudden and slow-onset climate events, including heatwaves, floods, cyclones, storm surges and tsunamis in the Maldives. These hazards exacerbate inequalities, impacting health, food security, income, and displacement. The report emphasizes that without adequate social protection coverage, populations will struggle to build resilience and cope with these intensifying challenges. Effective integration of social protection into climate policies is essential to address climate justice, promote inclusive growth and support just transitions.
The report identifies the necessity of social protection measures such as unemployment insurance, universal health coverage, and targeted cash transfers to support populations affected by climate hazards. It advocates for extending coverage to ensure social protection floor for all, redirecting investments to encourage green technologies that enhance climate resilience of vulnerable populations, and reviewing the role of social protection in emergency cash transfer mechanisms. Synergies between climate financing and social protection systems are crucial to ensure efficient resource utilization and resilience-building. Ultimately, the report calls for coordinated, evidence-based approaches to integrate social protection and climate policies, highlighting the importance of capacity-building, financing, community engagement, and knowledge-sharing to achieve sustainable and equitable outcomes.Acknowledgements ........................................... 4
1. Introduction .................................. 5
2. Climate change hazards and impacts on people.. 11
2.1 Climate change hazards .............................. 11
2.2 Impacts on people ........................................ 13
3. Interlinkages between climate policy and social protection policy .............................. 20
3.1 The Climate Emergency Act of Maldives ...... 20
3.2 Projects to promote renewable energy.......................20
3.3 Adaptation policies and programmes ......................21
3.4 Climate resilient policies for food security .............................................. 21
3.5 Climate resilient urban planning and management policies................................. 21
4. Social protection policies that can address climate change impact ........................... 23
4.1 Synergies between adaptation and social protection initiatives ................................ 24
5. Climate Finance ............................. 26
6. Entry points and recommendations to integrate social protection into climate policy
agenda ......................................................................................... 27
6.1 Extend more universal coverage to ensure social protection floor for all ................. 27
6.2 Redirect investments towards just transition to enhance resilience of climate
vulnerable populations ............................................................ 28
6.3 Emergency cash transfers ......................................................................... 29
6.4 Social protection for informal and own account workers ................................. 30
6.5 Education and training towards reskilling prospective workers to green climate
resilient technology .... 30
6.6 Improve access to climate finance for programmes with social protection
components ................................................................... 30
6.7 Generating evidence and knowledge management on synergies of social protection
and climate resilient policies .......................................................... 31
7. Conclusion and recommendations ....................................................... 3
Study on draft national strategy for electrification of public transport for Fiji
No full textElectrification of the land transport sector in Fiji has been a growing point of focus in policy
planning and development dialogues over the past decade. Despite a variety of
investigations conducted at the behest of the Government of Fiji in coordination with
development agencies and multilateral financing institutions operating in-country, market
penetration of electric vehicles (EVs) remains minimal, particularly in the public transport
sector. There have been instances where early adopters in the market have attempted to
introduce electric buses and the regulatory market and infrastructure has been inadequate
to facilitate their inclusion in the public transport vehicle fleet (Ravulo, 2015).
While perfunctory gestures have been made in the fiscal policy and budget space since these
first efforts in 2015, domestic public sector policy initiatives and multilateral development
sector financial investment priorities have not been transparent in their intended structure
or sufficient in their scope to enable Fiji’s private sector-driven public service vehicle (PSV)
industry to make the move towards electrification with sufficient confidence to commit
capital expenditures to transition the fleet of buses and minibuses, or establish the
additional capacity required to accommodate the operational expenditures required in
retraining and expanding the technical and service personnel to maintain EVs in greater
numbers alongside the existing internal combustion engine (ICE) fleet.
Nascent efforts by small-scale private sector operators are taking advantage of the limited
EV subsidy policies introduced in 2022, but these guidelines don’t include electric bikes,
which are calculated, alongside non-motorized bikes, to be an integral part of the
decarbonization pathway for the land transport sector in concert with the resuscitation of
the public transit industry. Cessation of growth in ICE taxis and private vehicles is critical.
Despite the previous government’s vocal rhetoric regarding the impacts of climate change
and extensive national planning documentation expressing the need for rapid
decarbonization, the business-as-usual (BAU) trajectory of behaviour in Fiji’s land transport
sector is trending completely off-target from both its NDC and SDG commitments. The nation
has accrued billions of dollars of unnecessary expenditures on fossil fuel imports over the
past decade by not instituting the necessary fiscal policies and operational activities
required to correct the unsustainable consumption patterns when initially identified in A
Green Growth Framework for Fiji (2014), the Greater Suva Transport Strategy 2015-2030,
the Fiji Low Emission Development Strategy 2018-2050, and the NDC Implementation
Roadmap and NDC Investment Plan (including project pipeline).
With a new government at the helm of the nation, it is clear that action is more urgently
needed than ever to correct the fundamental incongruity of the rhetoric of the past
administration with its detrimental actions. Fiji’s fuel imports represent the single largest
debt driver for the nation’s economy, and inspiring individual and collective behavioural
change is imperative to turn the nation towards a sustainable future in the coming decade. </p
Doha Programme of Action and Cambodia’s Pentagon strategy : mapping and alignment
Get PDFThis paper aims to assess Cambodia's national development plans in relation to the priorities and action areas of the Doha Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2022-2031 (DPoA), which was adopted in March 2022 as a revitalized and strengthened agreement between the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and their development partners. The objective is to identify gaps and needs for effective implementation and suggest policy adjustments based on the analysis.</p
Digital trade and wealth inequality : evidence from Asia Pacific region
Get PDFThis paper examines the impact of digital trade on wealth inequality for 40 developed and developing member countries of the UNESCAP Asia Pacific region, for the period from 2005-2021. Data on digital trade, measured using two indicators, namely, trade in digitally deliverable services and trade in ICT goods, is obtained from UNCTAD. Data on within-country wealth inequality, measured using two indicators, namely, wealth share of the top 1 percentile and top 10 percentile of the adult population, is sourced from the World Inequality Database. The overall trend in digital services trade restrictiveness and wealth inequality within the Asia Pacific region is analysed. Based on a rich panel dataset inclusive of standard control variables, this study then estimates the digital trade-wealth inequality nexus with the help of panel fixed effects and instrumental variable estimation techniques. The following key findings emerge: First, we find empirical evidence in support of the positive and significant impact of international trade, in both digitally deliverable services and ICT goods, on within-country wealth inequality in the Asia Pacific region. Second, however, we observe marked heterogeneity between developed and developing member countries of ESCAP, with the effect of digital trade on wealth inequality turning out to be significant for developed countries and insignificant for developing countries. Policy recommendations for streamlining digital trade, to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of reduced wealth inequality are put forth based on our findings. Elimination of monopolistic and restrictive digital trade practices, and improving the regulatory framework pertaining to digital trade can help mitigate increasing wealth inequality in the developed countries. On the other hand, removal of obstacles faced by small and medium-scale enterprises, youth and women entrepreneurs in accessing and participating in digital trade and digital platforms can go a long way in bringing down wealth inequality in the developing economies, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.</p