The World Bank

End Routine Flaring

It’s going to take a while – until 2030 for full implementation – but nine countries, ten oil companies and six development institutions have joined a World Bank effort to end the practice of routine gas flaring at oil production sites. “Gas flaring is a visual reminder that we are wastefully sending CO2 into the atmosphere,” said World Bank President… Keep reading →

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Quick Take: We are learning that more than 1,000 utilities in the U.S. and Europe have had their computer systems compromised by malware. My first question: Why do utilities have to get this kind of warning through news stories long after the fact? Why don’t we have a system set up for sharing new dangers as… Keep reading →

Burmese Punks Deliver Food To Some Of Yangon's Poorest Communities

In this series on Myanmar’s power sector, Breaking Energy takes a look at the dynamics of the sector, what’s driving change, how foreign investors are getting involved, and the challenges facing the government. In Part I below, we examine the state of the sector. Last November, residents of the new, more democratic Myanmar took to… Keep reading →

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Energy infrastructure is inconsistently distributed worldwide. As a result, much of the global population is without access to affordable electricity. This issue has been at the forefront of discussions surrounding energy, development, and social justice. President Obama started the Power Africa initiative last year and the UN continues to promote the Sustainable Energy for All campaign.… Keep reading →

theglobalchallenge

Here’s a cool infographic from the Thirsty Energy website to illustrate where we are and where we’re headed. Energy and water, two of our most important global resources, are inextricably linked. And yet when it comes to planning, the regulatory agencies in charge of managing these precious resources are often separate and uncoordinated in their decision-making. With the… Keep reading →

Business And Political Leaders Attend Climate Week NYC Discussion

There is no shortage of small ways in which individuals can take action against climate change. What is lacking, at least thus far, is a solution equal to the scale of the challenge, according to World Bank President Jim Yong Kim. The World Bank is seeking to incorporate efforts to tackle climate change into its… Keep reading →


Global demand for water is growing at an astonishing rate – possibly 40% higher than current demand – in the next 20 years. That means utilities will need to find the best ways to manage the finite resource they possibly can.

That need translates into a huge jump in smart water meter deployments, according to a report from Pike Research. The report, Smart Water Meters, says we can expect to see a global base of smart water meters using AMI technologies to hit almost 30 million by 2017, an astonishing increase over the 10.3 million in use in 2011. By the end of the forecast period, annual shipments are expected to be 3.3 million, with an annual market value of $476 million. Keep reading →

(From L) Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, French President Francois Hollande, US President Barack Obama, UK Prime Minister David Cameron, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, (From R) Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel take part in a working session of the G8 summit in Camp David, Maryland, on May 19, 2012. AFP PHOTO/RIA NOVOSTI/POOL/MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV

At the Camp David Summit, G-8 Leaders recognized that the development of and universal access to environmentally safe, sustainable, secure, and affordable sources of energy is essential to global economic growth and to their overall efforts to address climate change. As such, they identified several actions for the G-8 to take together: Keep reading →


The future of sustainable clean technology is not in huge, one-size-fits-all technologies but in distributed technologies that people embrace on the local level, said experts at the 4th Annual IFC Cleantech Workshop of the International Finance Corporation, part of The World Bank.

Moreover, the technology advances that will enable more sustainable living are already here or on the way, they said. Now it’s the financial and management systems that need innovation. Keep reading →