Romania Toward a Low Carbon and Climate Resilient Economy

Romania Toward a Low Carbon and Climate Resilient Economy
Author: Weltbank
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2016
Genre:
ISBN:

By European standards, Romania is a low urbanized country. There exists a rising trend towards suburbanization, however, that is not fully captured by Romania's urban statistics. The country's urbanization rate of 55 percent has remained fairly constant over the past two decades, despite significant population migration out of the country, and a strong suburbanization trend in areas on the immediate outskirts of major cities. Because central government demographers still categorize some of these regions outside of the urban core as rural, this shift has not yet made its way into the official population statistics. If this were to happen, the urbanization rate could rise to 65 percent. The objective of the urban sector analysis was to provide insights to the Romanian Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests (MEWF) on opportunities to change the trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in Romanian cities, using the Bucharest-Ilfov metropolitan region (BIMR) as an example.

Romania Toward a Low Carbon and Climate Resilient Economy

Romania Toward a Low Carbon and Climate Resilient Economy
Author: Weltbank
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2015
Genre:
ISBN:

This report is about Romanis's Green growth benchmarking, which is a country-level diagnostic that helps define a country's strengths and vulnerabilities in adopting a path to greener growth. The process of defining a country's green growth path starts with an analysis aimed at mapping the country's current position on a multi-dimensional green-growth chart, with each dimension defined by an indicator of green growth. A framework to define a list of questions key to understanding how Romania or any country compares in an international context is constructed with three considerations: “how green?,” “going green,” and “riding a green wave.” This framework is used to guide a benchmarking exercise that maps Romania against comparator countries and country groups using a dataset of more than 100 indicators for 69 countries. The following were the key findings: (i) Romania is well-endowed with natural resources, which, if used productively, can support strong and sustained economic growth; (ii) despite drastic improvements since the early 1990s, Romania's economy has high intensity greenhouse gas emissions and high energy intensity. However, as a member of the European Union (EU) the country already faces obligations to reduce its emissions; (iii) making adaptations to protect tomorrow's output from climate damage is also important for Romania, a country more vulnerable to climate change than others in the EU; and (iv) a greener world will require economic transition, and successful transformation will depend on the flexibility of the country's economy--its ability to absorb shocks--and its readiness to take advantage of new opportunities. Romania does not appear ready to take advantage of new green opportunities: in research and development indicators and the innovation and knowledge economy, Romania lags far behind the EU. The following were the conclusions and recommendations: (i) this benchmarking exercise identified a selected set of issues within the broad green growth agenda which Romania should focus on as it considers how to move onto a greener growth path; and (ii) a country pursuing green growth might find regular benchmarking analysis of value in identifying emerging green issues.

Romania Toward a Low Carbon and Climate Resilient Economy

Romania Toward a Low Carbon and Climate Resilient Economy
Author: Weltbank
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2015
Genre:
ISBN:

In Romania, as well as in many other East European countries, transport sector Green House Gas (GHG) emissions are increasing fast and their growth is expected to continue into the future, accompanying the on-going economic convergence with the European Union (EU). The objective of the analysis was to assess the impact of green policies and investments on transport emissions. For this purpose, the Romania Transport Strategic Emission Prediction Tool (TRANSEPT) was developed. The outcome of the analysis is a set of proposed green measures, their cost (investment and operational), and their abatement potential. The findings show that Green interventions in Romania lead to a significant reduction of GHG emissions growth as compared with the Baseline and to a gradual decoupling of transport sector emissions growth from economic growth, thus achieving the goal of transport sector mitigation. The main modeling outcomes include abatement potential, cost, and the cost effectiveness (cost per unit of abatement) of the selected green interventions for the period 2015-2050. Financing needs for the recommended measures in transport rise sharply between the Green and the Super Green scenarios, but still remain modest, as incremental investments within a large sector. As the last step of the analysis, a Marginal Abatement Cost Curve (MACC) provided a framework to present the outcomes of the transport sector analysis in a form useful for policy discussions. As Romania's motorization rate converges with that of the EU, transport emissions are expected to grow even if green measures in the sector are implemented. To conclude, the proposed mitigation action plan recommends a set of actions on the basis of the estimates made in this assessment where institutional arrangement and coordination are also critical.

Romania Toward a Low Carbon and Climate Resilient Economy

Romania Toward a Low Carbon and Climate Resilient Economy
Author: Weltbank
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2015
Genre:
ISBN:

Romania's water resources are moderate, but sufficient with prudent resource management that will ensure conservation and sustainability; regional and inter-annual variation is, however, significant. Water availability in Romania is only 2,000 cubic meters per capita per year, just above the international threshold for water stress of 1,700.

Romania Toward a Low Carbon and Climate Resilient Economy

Romania Toward a Low Carbon and Climate Resilient Economy
Author: Weltbank
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release:
Genre:
ISBN:

Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) can be defined as the systematic and objective measurement and assessment of progress and performance of an intervention. A comprehensive system documents activities, outcomes, and impacts; promotes transparency and accountability; and facilitates continuous learning. The system should also evolve, expand, and improve over time to adapt to changing needs, priorities, capabilities and available data. Climate policy evaluation uses data to answer specific questions about the implementation, outcomes, and effects of policy or related issues. A theory-based approach facilitates evaluation of the entire implementation process. Through the development of indicators for each step in the process, it is possible to not only learn which policies are successful or not, but also why they succeeded or failed and how they can be improved.

Romania Toward a Low Carbon and Climate Resilient Economy

Romania Toward a Low Carbon and Climate Resilient Economy
Author: Weltbank
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2015
Genre:
ISBN:

Romanian industrial and power installations entered the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) in 2007 when Romania joined the European Union. Emissions from aircraft operators were included in 2012. Around 200 Romanian installations and operators currently participate in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), out of a total of some 10,000, and they emitted around 40 percent of Romanian greenhouse gases in 2013. By the end of 2014, Romania collected about 260 million Euros from the EU ETS auctioning revenues, of which 71 percent was dedicated to climate finance projects. Potential EU ETS auctioning revenues for Romania could amount to around 4 billion per year by 2030. As the government strives for a climate resilient, low-carbon economy by 2030, the efficient use of revenues from the auctioning of EU ETS allowances could be an effective tool for reaching this goal in the sectors not covered by existing climate finance mechanisms and policy regulations. The introduction of a Market Stability Reserve (MSR) in 2018 is expected to increase significantly the carbon price. To conclude, in order to constitute a viable and longer-term climate finance programs supported by EU ETS auctioning revenue, it is necessary to amend the current legislation and approve an updated financial and organizational scheme for the use of EU ETS revenues.

Romania Toward a Low Carbon and Climate Resilient Economy

Romania Toward a Low Carbon and Climate Resilient Economy
Author: Weltbank
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2015
Genre:
ISBN:

The Marginal Abatement Cost Curves (MACC) analysis in the Romania Green Growth study presents a cross-sectoral outlook of the benefits and costs of the green technologies and abatement measures recommended in the sectoral modeling and analysis for the time period 2015-2050. MACC are a commonly used tool in evaluating emissions reduction technologies and a most efficient communication instrument for discussions of the abatement policies. Romania's MACC is a combination of sectoral curves, each of which was built using the most appropriate approach for each sector. Global and local data sources were use in the MACC analysis. The findings are as follows: (i) sector analysis conducted for the Romania Green Growth Assessment resulted in a selection of a list of measures that constitute a green package in each sector of energy efficiency, powersupply, forestry, agriculture,and transport; (ii) a review by sector shows that energy efficiency measures are most beneficial, they have high abatement potential and mostly negative cost, while electricity supply interventions produce most of the abatement; (iii) agriculture and forestry measures are cost efficient and (iv) in transport, attacking emissions and generating local co-benefits justifies the high cost of the interventions and motivates support for improved transport policies. The conclusions and recommendations are as follows: (a) The MACC work derives from the analysis and modeling of all the relevant sectors in the Assessment; (b) when the MACC data from all sectors is modeled in one chart, it creates a clear and simple picture that compares green measures by costs and benefits across sectors; and (c) the Romania MACC can increase the quality of decisions regarding prioritizing and scheduling the proposed abatement measures.

Romania Toward a Low Carbon and Climate Resilient Economy

Romania Toward a Low Carbon and Climate Resilient Economy
Author: Weltbank
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2015
Genre:
ISBN:

This report is about agriculture sector of Romania which is endowed with high quality natural resources and tops the European Union (EU) ranking by the share of the agriculture sector in the economy. However, Romanian agriculture has low productivity, and rural areas are disproportionally poor. An important factor in low productivity is the large share of small agricultural holdings. The sector needs to consider adaptation to a changing and less favorable climate going forward, as well as mitigate Gree House Gas (GHG) emissions. The impact of green adaptation policies and investments on sectoral outcomes in agriculture and related costs were assessed through joint modeling of water and agriculture. The projected decrease in water availability due to rising temperatures will push up the demand for water for irrigation, thus increasing the already existing demand-supply gap. Water sector modeling analyzed the impact of climate change on yields of nine crops over twelve basins in the baseline scenario and found that rainfed yields mostly decrease under all climate scenarios, with a varying severity of impact among types of crops and increasing impact over time, while the irrigated crops' yields improve. Irrigation was found to be most significant adaptation measure providing the largest gains in yields. Two mitigation measures, both supported by the EU and the National Rural Development Program (NRDP) are considered in the agriculture mitigation analysis using the marginal abatement cost curve (MACC): minimum tillage and manure management. The most effective adaptation measures for Romanian agriculture are rehabilitated and modernized irrigation to restore irrigated production to currently rainfed areas and optimization of agronomic inputs accompanied by high-quality extension services. Improvements in good farming practices, like manure management and minimizing erosion through afforestation, can also reduce vulnerabilities. Financing needs for the two recommended mitigation measures-no tillage agriculture and manure management--are low and are highly beneficial from the point of view of sector efficiency. Finally, strengthening policy and institutional capacity is vital to support the recommended interventions.

Making Romania Fit and Resilient for the Net-Zero Transition

Making Romania Fit and Resilient for the Net-Zero Transition
Author: Augustus J Panton
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 22
Release: 2023-12-13
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Romania is on track to become ‘fit for 55’—reducing its absolute emissions by 55 percent (relative to 1990) by 2030, consistent with the European Green Deal. However, becoming carbon-neutral by 2050 in an economically resilient and competitive manner would require an accelerated decarbonization path, especially in the transport and building sectors—two emission-intensive sectors that are projected to raise Romania’s carbon footprint over time. The analysis presented in this paper shows that complementing the existing decarbonization measures with further national carbon pricing instruments in these sectors could put Romania on track to carbon neutrality. Crucially, these complementary measures would incentivize green private investment and boost energy security, while enhancing Romania’s resilience and unlocking its potential in the global green value chains.