Romania is committed to fighting climate change and pursuing low carbon development. Therefore, the Government of Romania, through the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MECC), has requested the World Bank to provide advisory services to help meet this commitment.
Integration of both mitigation and adaptation actions into Romania’s national strategies, policies, and programs will be a critical step in shifting its development path towards a climate resilient, low carbon and green economy.
The Program implemented jointly by the World Bank and MECC aims to enable Romania to advance towards attaining the “Europe 2020 Strategy” objective which provides EU Member States a framework and means for moving towards a greener and more competitive low carbon economy that makes efficient use of resources and is resilient to climate risk.
Program Objectives
- Develop and operationalize a comprehensive national climate change and low carbon development strategy and action plan;
- Identify and integrate climate-related actions into the 2014-2020 EU-funded Operational Programs;
- Build a solid analytical and knowledge base for impact assessment and climate-related decision making; and
- Enhance implementation capacity through identifying carbon trading opportunities and developing a system for progress monitoring and verification.
Program Components
- Component A: National climate change and low carbon green growth strategy and action plan
- Component B: Identification and integration of climate-related actions in the Operational Programs for EU funds in 2014-2020
- Component C: Development of an analytical and knowledge base for policy simulations and decision making
- Component D: Implementation capacity building
Program Outputs & Outcomes
- Professional network and e-discussion group on climate change in Romania.
- Component B: Synthesis Report and Six Sector Rapid Assessment Reports
- Events (workshops and conferences)
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Component A: Development and operationalization of a comprehensive national climate change and low carbon green growth strategy and action plan
This component will assist the Romanian government to develop and operationalize a comprehensive national climate change and low carbon green growth strategy and action plan by 2015, supported by fact-based analysis, integrated with other national strategies, and based on extensive consultation. The component will include the following two activities:
Activity A1: Stocktaking and Vision Development
This activity will first take stock of key climate-related issues for Romania, summarize the current situation, and assist the government to develop a vision statement.
Activity A2: Climate Change and Low Carbon Green Growth Strategy and Action Plan
This activity will propose a strategy and action plan for a comprehensive climate change and low carbon green growth which will be operational and easy to implement.
Component B: Identification and Integration of climate-related investment actions in the 2014-2020 Operational Programs for EU funds
In order to meet EU requirements for future use of EU funds, the Government of Romania needs to complete the 2014-2020 Operational Programs which must incorporate climate change issues. This component assists the government to identify eligible CC actions for the EU-funded Operational Programs. Rapid assessment of sectoral actions is conducted in six key sectors – energy, transport, urban, water, agriculture, and forestry.
Component C: Development a sound analytical and knowledge base on climate change and low carbon green growth for policy simulations and decision making
There are three activities under this component, which aims to identify, quantify, and assess the long-term multi-sectoral impacts of development policies and investments related to mitigation and adaptation through development of a analytical and knowledge base.
Activity C1: Sector analysis and baseline scenarios
The activity continues to conduct sectoral analysis and modeling in key sectors important to mitigation and adaptation. Both mitigation and adaptation options for Romania will also be assessed through sectoral analysis in an integrated way. Development scenarios will be constructed from carefully projected growths and GHG intensity of GDP, including a baseline or Business-As-Usual scenario.
Activity C2: Marginal abatement cost analysis of mitigation measures in selected key sectors
The marginal abatement cost curve (MACC), which prioritize multiple low-carbon options by calculating their marginal abatement cost or net present value of costs and benefits per ton of GHG abated, will be built from sectoral analysis and modeling to help policymakers choose a program of mitigation actions with minimum costs and maximum reduction of emissions across multiple sectors.
Activity C3: Economy wide analysis of low carbon green growth
This activity will develop a macro-economic model for Romania to study the key economic relationships and impacts within Romania and with the EU and the rest of the world. The model will allow long-term and multi-sectoral impacts to be assessed. The model would simulate impacts of different shocks and policy responses related to climate change on sectoral outputs, employment, trade, capital flows, and fiscal revenues and expenditures.
Component D: Institutional capacity building for carbon trading and progress monitoring, and evaluation of climate actions
There are three activities under this component:
Activity D1: Development of a methodology and identification of opportunities for carbon trading.
Activity D2: Design of monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) system for climate change actions.
Activity D3: Information dissemination
Component A – Reports, Summaries and Dissemination Notes
Summary of Climate Change Strategy
Summary of Climate Change Action Plan
Dissemination Note - Monitoring and Evaluation
Dissemination Note - Institutional Capacity Building
Report on Institutional Capacity Building
Report on Monitoring and Evaluation
Component B – Sector Rapid Assessment Reports
Energy Sector Rapid Assessment Report
Transport Sector Rapid Assessment Report
Urban Sector Rapid Assessment Report
Water Sector Rapid Assessment Report
Agricultural & Rural Sector Rapid Assessment Report
Forest Sector Rapid Assessment Report
Component C – Dissemination Notes
Dissemination Note – Water Sector Analysis
Dissemination Note – Urban Sector Analysis
Dissemination Note – Transport Sector Analysis
Dissemination Note – Forestry Sector Analysis
Dissemination Note – Energy Sector Analysis
Dissemination Note – Agriculture Sector Analysis
Dissemination Note – Marginal Abatement Cost Curve Analysis
Component D – Reports and Dissemination Notes
Dissemination Note – Benchmarking Study
Dissemination Note – ETS Study
Report on the Design of MRV system in Romania
Program Events
The following events have been organized by MEWF and the World Bank.
Consultations workshops under component B were held in the summer and autumn of 2013 with the aim of bringing together representatives and technical staff of relevant government agencies and institutes to review the preliminary results of the rapid sectoral assessment and provide comments. Each workshop was attended by about 50 invited participants from various relevant ministries and governmental agencies.
1) First Consultation Workshop on Sector Analysis and Integration of Climate Actions into Sectoral Operational Programming for EU Funds, held on July 30, 2013, in Bucharest.
2) Second Consultation Workshop on Energy, Transport and Urban Sector Analysis and Integration of Climate Actions into Sectoral Operational Programmes 2014-2020, held on September 18, 2013, in Bucharest.
3) Third Consultation Workshop on Agricultural and Forestry Sector Analysis and Integration of Climate Actions into National Rural Development Plan and Sectoral Operational Programmes 2014-2020, held on September 19, 2013, in Bucharest.
4) A workshop was held on December 11, 2013, which offered a detailed analysis of the costs and benefits of mitigation and adaptation options for climate change; a first assessments of the component C of the program was debated, with regards to the analysis of marginal abatement costs for greenhouse gas emissions in certain key sectors.
5) On December 12, 2013, a workshop was held to help identify climatic actions that could be included in the Operational Programs 2014-2020.
6) A two-day workshop with 50 participants, on macroeconomic and sector modeling was conducted on February 5-6, for MEWF and other Government institutions and research institutes involved in the project (under Component C).
7) Three workshops (under Component A) with over 40 participants were delivered by the Bank team on March 13 and 14, to identify the key priorities, for the six key sectors (urban, energy, water, agriculture, forests, and transport).
8) A one-day conference was organized on May 6, in Bucharest, jointly by the MEWF and Bank. This event was to present the findings and recommendations of component B to the staff and consultants of relevant government units responsible for operational programming.
9) A two day energy modeling workshop and a macroeconomic modeling workshop (under Component C) were conducted together with MEWF and other relevant stakeholders on May 19-20 and May 21-22, respectively.
10) A macro-economic modeling training workshop (under Component C) dedicated to MEWF and other involved public institutions was conducted over the period of July 7 -11, in Bucharest.
11) Two workshops (under Component A) to identify climate related priorities in the 6 key selected sectors for the CC action were conducted on July 15 and July 16, in Bucharest, with a large participation and active involvement of the Romanian public institutions.
12) A 2.5-day training workshop on CGE modeling for Romania has been held in Bucharest on October 1-3.
13) A second conference under component B was held on 27 November 2014, with the objectives to review, facilitate and support the inclusion of EU requirements and climatic action in the 2014-2020 OPs.
14) On January 28, 2015, MEWF and the World Bank organized a conference for presenting the progress and consultations on the operationalization of Romania’s climate change strategy and national climate change action plan.
15) A two-day workshop was held during February 16-17, 2015, for modeling the energy sector. The objectives of this workshop were: to present the approaches and modelling tools in the energy sector and modeling data on demand and supply within the energy sector.
16) During February 19-20, 2015, a two day workshop was held with the theme: “General equilibrium model for Romania (ROM-E3) – updates and scenarios”. The workshop focused on updating the Romanian databases based on Eurostat data for 2010; building and implementing MAC curves; additional functions of transport model; building and running scenarios.
17) On March 30, 2015, a meeting was organized to present the main findings and recommendations of the report regarding the outputs of the marginal costs analysis for greenhouse gas emissions abatement (Marginal Abatement Cost Curves – MACC).
18) On March 31, 2015, The Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests organized a workshop dedicated to economic modeling in the water sector.
19) During April 22-24, 2015, macroeconomic modelling sessions were held. This model shall substantiate the alternatives which shall represent the basis of the strategies and policies forecasted in several sectors, taking into account the obligations of Romania resulting from the commitments at EU and international level, for the abatement of the GHG emissions and in order to adapt to climate change.
20) On June 9, 2015, a workshop dedicated to the presentation of the urban development scenario in the Bucharest-Ilfov region and the entire activity developed in relation to the above mentioned modeling scenario was held, as part of the OPERA-CLIMA project (Operationalization of the national strategy on climate change and development of the climate component within the 2014 – 2020 operational programs).
21) During June 22-23, 2015, The Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests organized sessions on economic modeling for the water sector. The sessions were carried out within the OPERA-CLIMA project, “Operationalization of the national strategy on climate change and development of the climate component within the 2014-2020 Operational Programs”), implemented by MEWF with the technical assistance from the World Bank and funded through the 2007 – 2013 Operational Program Technical Assistance.
22) On June 24 and 25, 2015, the Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests organized the final workshops regarding the macroeconomic impact modeling component, within the OPERA-CLIMA project (”Operationalization of the national strategy on climate change and development of the climate component within the 2014-2020 Operational Programs”).
23) On June 25, 2015, a meeting addressed to decision-making people was organized to present the model and the results of the economic and macro-sectoral analysis regarding the costs and benefits of the climate policies of Romanian and the scenarios in the 2020 – 2030 – 2050 horizon. It was moderated by the macro-modeling senior experts of the World Bank and by a representative of the consortium that prepared the EU 2015 Reference Scenario regarding Energy and Climate, developed by the European Commission.
24) On September 16, 2015, the Ministry of Environment, Water and Forests organized a workshop dedicated to the financial support mechanisms of the climate policies in various economic sectors, especially by utilizing the amounts obtained by the Romanian state from auctioning GHG emissions allowances.
25) On September 24-25, 2015, the workshops “Designing the monitoring, reporting and verification system (MRV) for the actions related to climate changes in the transportation system” were organized, which had as scope analyzing the design, perspectives and measures to optimize the measuring/monitoring, reporting and verification system related to GHG emissions, with special focus on maritime transportation.
26) A workshop was organized on September 28, 2015 focused on improving the legal and institutional framework, in order to streamline the utilization of the revenues obtained from the European Trade Scheme of GHG allowances.
27) A workshop was organized on October 6, 2015 focused on the topic of “Efficient utilization of the revenues obtained from EU ETS – proposal of the World Bank and good practices in the management of funds in Romania”.
28) The Ministry of Environment, Water and Forests organized the national conference “Climate Strategy and National Action Plan: the Economy and Climate – two paths for Romania and their meeting point” on November 23, 2015. The conference was dedicated to the climate change strategy developed in partnership with the World Bank.
29) During November 24 and 25, 2015, the Ministry of Environment, Water and Forests organized the closing conference “OPERA-CLIMA Project: climate challenges, good money and the chance for Romania’s success”, which was held over two days. The closing conference synthesized and presented the results of this extensive project.