Message-ID: <85256619.005364D0.00@WBLN0014.worldbank.org> Date: Thu, 4 Jun 1998 11:11:27 -0400 From: mailto:Dshaman@WORLDBANK.ORG Subject: NIPR newsletter, May, 1998 To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
1 - The World Bank's 1998 World Development Indicators for air and water pollution 2 - Interesting things featured on the web by environmental agencies 3 - New section started for India 4 - Papers available from the "Trade, Globalization and Environment" conference 5 - Philippine President Ramos notes pollution charge program and "EcoWatch" in speechDear Friends:
In the last few weeks, we have been able to make several new features available to the New Ideas in Pollution Regulation (NIPR) community ( http://www.worldbank.org/nipr). We hope you will find the above additions both interesting and useful to your own research or work on pollution regulation issues.
1 - The Bank's second annual World Development Indicators (WDI) was released in April. The WDI is a compendium of indices which measure trends for a variety of development issues. These include data for quality of life, population, employment, output, consumption, expenditures, financial markets, international trade and environment issues. We have reproduced two tables from this report, one providing water pollution estimates for most countries and the other providing air pollution levels in major cities. The water pollution estimates were developed from work by the NIPR team which is summarized in the "Industrial Pollution in Economic Development: Kuznets Revisited" paper, and can be visited at http://www.worldbank.org/nipr/work_paper/kuznet/index.htm.) For this study, our team used plant and sector-level information on emissions and employment from 13 national environmental agencies and sector-level information on output and employment from the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). The econometric analysis found that the ratio of Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) to employment in each industrial sector is about the same across countries. BOD is a basic water pollutant. This finding allowed the researchers to estimate BOD loads for almost every country worldwide. And unlike estimates from engineering or economic models, these estimates are based on actual measurements of plant-level water pollution.
http://www.worldbank.org/nipr/wdi98/index.htm
2 - NIPR conducted an informal search of Internet sites of national environmental ministries to learn what interesting or innovative features have been made available to web surfers. The result is a two-part series. Information highlighted includes datasets for a variety of environmental and pollution measurements. Also noted are agency sites that have extensive documentation of key laws and regulations governing their nation's environmental management. Of particular interest in Part 1 is the Thai Pollution Control Department's search engine that will tell you how many industrial factories are in each province, and provide comparative rankings between provinces for hazardous waste generation. If you would like to learn about air quality in Bangkok and Southern Thailand, data is updated and made available on a daily basis. On a practical note, our search of environmental ministry websites focused on English-language text. If anyone in (or out of) the NIPR community is aware of a worthwhile feature which is not in English, please let us know and we will be happy to feature it in future updates.
http://www.worldbank.org/nipr/epas/index.htm
3 - We have added a new section on India to our Country Briefing page. The India section hosts several of our research papers focused on the country. One new addition is a background paper on India's environmental regulations and laws by David Shaman. There is also a link to a U.S. Agency for International Development site called Trade in Environmental Services and Technologies (TEST). TEST provides a variety of information on India's environmental market.
http://www.worldbank.org/nipr/india/index.htm
4 - The Environmental Economics and Indicators Unit of the World Bank has concluded its conference on "Trade, Global Policy and the Environment". However, all 15 papers from the conference can be downloaded. The session topics for the conference were: Trade Liberalization and Pollution; The Environmental Effects of Trade Liberalization; Policy Options for Global Environmental Problems; Trade, Growth and the Environment; Issues in Global Environmental Policy; and The Pollution Haven Hypothesis.
http://www-esd.worldbank.org/eei/conference.html
5 - We have posted a speech by Philippine President Fidel Ramos on his administration's programs and accomplishments for environment and sustainable development during his five-year tenure. He makes reference to two pilot programs where the NIPR team played a role, implementation of pollution charges in the Laguna Lake region, and EcoWatch, a public information disclosure system where polluting industries are ranked according to their level of compliance with existing regulations. The EcoWatch program mirrors the efforts made in Indonesia with PROPER.
http://www.worldbank.org/nipr/ecowatch/ramos.htm
The additions to the NIPR site reflect our continued commitment to provide you with a broad range of new and timely information. As always, we find your comments and suggestions helpful. If there is information that you think should be on the site, we would be glad to hear from you. If you wish to no longer receive our monthly mailings, please let us know by writing David Shaman at mailto:dshaman@worldbank.org. Best wishes.