Sustainability and Infrastructure

Lasting poverty reduction requires sustainable natural resource management as well as infrastructure development. This research program encompasses energy, environment, land, agriculture, water, climate change, biodiversity, and urbanization.

Featured Research

Advancing Biodiversity Conservation: Data-Driven Insights for Global Sustainability and Resilience
September 2025
Biodiversity conservation is critical for sustainable development, poverty reduction, and climate stability. However, biodiversity is in crisis, with nearly one million species at risk and a 68% decline in global biodiversity since 1970. Limited access to up-to-date data, particularly in developing regions, has hindered conservation efforts. Traditional metrics focus mainly on vertebrates and overlook broader aspects of biodiversity, while emerging threats outpace slow data updates. To address this, the World Bank has developed extensive open-access datasets, covering nearly 600,000 species across terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems. This effort has expanded habitat data by fivefold for plants and tenfold for invertebrates and other phyla, complementing the traditional focus on vertebrates.
9th Urbanization and Development Conference
Conference, June 11-12, 2025, Cape Town, South Africa
African countries are urbanizing at faster rates than any other region in history. This offers an important opportunity for growth and development. The 9th Urbanization and Development Conference on "Urban Economics in Action: Addressing African Cities' Challenges" will bring together academics, policy makers, and development practitioners to discuss how economics research can help inform urban policy decisions and the allocation of scarce resources to build productive, livable, and sustainable cities in Africa.
Access recordings, papers, and presentations from the event
A New Database to Support a New Era in Biodiversity Conservation
Database, 2024
Biodiversity is a cornerstone of development, and its loss threatens many hard-won development gains. Recently, the Sustainability and Infrastructure team shared a dataset including millions of georeferenced reports from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). The resulting Global Biodiversity Species Global Grid database includes over 600,000 species, including arthropods, mollusks, plants and fungi, across terrestrial, freshwater, and marine environments, alongside more traditionally-represented vertebrates.
Read the Blog | Access the Database
World Bank Land Conference 2024: Securing Land Tenure and Access for Climate Action - Research Track
Conference, May 13-17, 2024, Washington, DC
For over two decades, the World Bank Land Conference catalyzed the global land community. The Conference is the premier forum for the land sector, bringing together participants from governments, development partners, civil society, academia, and the private sector to showcase research, discuss issues and good practice, and inform policy dialogue.
Event Sessions | Program Book | Land Policies for Resilient and Equitable Growth in Africa
Sea Level Rise
PBS Energy Switch Interview, April 2024
Sea level has been rising since the end of the last Ice Age, when continental ice sheets began to melt. In island nations and low-lying coastal areas sea level rise is contributing, among other things, to high tide flooding, and saltwater encroaching into farmland and freshwater aquifers. This television program discusses what the future could bring and ideas of how communities could adapt to sea level rise.
More research by Susmita Dasgupta
8th Urbanization and Poverty Reduction Research Conference
Conference, March 7-8, 2024, Washington, DC
Cities in developing countries are growing at faster rates and at lower income levels than those in developed country alternatives. The 8th Urbanization and Poverty Reduction Research Conference will bring together academics and development practitioners to present and discuss questions relating to urban expansion and the future spatial organization of cities.
Climate Change as a Major Threat to Sustainable Development: The case of sea-level rise in the Ganges Brahmaputra Delta in Asia
Presentation, December 2023
Families in coastal Bangladesh are already on the “front line” of climate change. Their experience gives a preview of the kinds of future decisions faced by hundreds of millions of families worldwide that will be confronted by similar threats well before 2100. In a presentation delivered at Harvard Graduate School in December 2023, Susmita Dasgupta discussed the multifaceted threats from sea-level rise in the Ganges Delta, as well as policy and adaptation measures to respond to these threats.
Presentation | More research by Susmita Dasgupta
GHG Tracking & Mitigation with Satellite Data
Datasets and Research, January 2024
Reducing greenhouse gases (GHGs) is urgently required to mitigate climate change. Steep emissions reductions will be needed to keep global warming below 1.5°C. While countries around the world have pledged to curb both carbon and methane emissions—two of the most significant GHGs—many nations do not have the infrastructure to adequately track their emissions. To fill this gap, the World Bank has rolled out major new datasets, tools, and research using satellite data to make frequently updated GHG emission data easily accessible to the general public.
Story | Carbon Dioxide Dataset | Methane Dataset | Presentation to NASA (April 2023) | NASA Presentation Participants | World Bank-NASA-NOAA-EfSI Roundtable on Greenhouse Gas Emissions (November 2023) | Resources | Blog Post | More research by Susmita Dasgupta
Climate Change as a Major Threat to Sustainable Development: The case of sea-level rise in the Ganges Brahmaputra Delta in Asia
Presentation, December 2, 2023, Harvard Graduate School
Families in coastal Bangladesh are already on the “front line” of climate change. Their experience gives a preview of the kinds of future decisions faced by hundreds of millions of families worldwide that will be confronted by similar threats well before 2100. In this presentation delivered at Harvard Graduate School in December 2023, Susmita Dasgupta discussed the multifaceted threats from sea-level rise in the Ganges Delta, as well as policy and adaptation measures to respond to these threats.
Meeting the global climate challenge: The role of financial incentives at the G20 Global Financial Stability Conference
Presentation, September 20, 2023
Carolyn Fischer spoke at the G20 Global Financial Stability Conference in Seoul in the first session, “Challenges of the Global Economy and the International Financial Market in Turbulence”, featuring Jason Furman from Harvard Kennedy School, Fischer, and Gian Maria Milesi-Ferretti from the Brookings Institution. Fischer’s talk was on the topic of “Climate Policies for a Global Transition.”
Presentation Link | More Research by Carolyn Fischer
Sustainable Cities Must Become Central to Climate Change Strategies
Feature Story, 2023
Approximately 56 percent of the world’s population—or 4.4 billion individuals—lives in a city. The growth of cities is expected to continue, with the urban population more than doubling its current size by 2050. Following a three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Urbanization and Poverty Reduction Research Conference series returned earlier this year for its 7th iteration.
7th Urbanization and Poverty Reduction Research Conference | More research by Harris Selod
Land Matters: Can Better Governance and Management of Scarcity Prevent a Looming Crisis in the Middle East and North Africa?
Report, 2023
Across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, land is a scarce and valuable resource. The projected increase in land demand due to demographic trends, coupled with decreasing land supply due to climatic and governance factors, indicate a looming crisis happening at a time when the region is also facing dramatic social and political transformation. This report identifies and analyzes the economic, environmental, and social challenges associated with land in MENA countries, shedding light on policy options to address them.
More research by Harris Selod

LATEST WORKING PAPERS

This section highlights a few recent working papers. For a full list of working papers, please see: More Working Papers

Using Remotely Sensed Data to Assess War-Induced Damage to Agricultural Cultivation: Evidence from Ukraine
Klaus Deininger, Daniel Ayalew, Nataliia Kussul, Guido Lemoine, Andrii Shelestov, and Leonid Shumilo
World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 11221, September 2025

Economics of Household Cooking Using Electricity in Nepal
Sunil Malla, Govinda R. Timilsina, and Martin P. Heger
World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 11157, June 2025

Yield Gains from Balancing Fertilizer Use: Evidence from Eastern India
Julian Arteaga, and Klaus Deininger
World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 11134, May 2025

Certified to Stay? Long-Run Experimental Evidence on Land Formalization and Widows’ Tenure Security in Benin
Ioana Botea, Markus Goldstein, Kenneth Houngbedji, Florence Kondylis, Michael O’Sullivan, and Harris Selod
World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 11102, April 2025

Capitalizing on Digital Transformation to Enhance the Effectiveness of Property Institutions: Conceptual Background and Evidence from 85 Countries
Klaus Deininger, Thea Hilhorst, Jaap Zevenbergen, and Emmanuel Nkurunziza
World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 11100, April 2025

LATEST JOURNAL ARTICLES

Private management of African protected areas improves wildlife and tourism outcomes but with security concerns in conflict regions
Sean Denny, Gabriel Englander, Patrick Hunnicutt
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 121, July 2024

Global expansion of marine protected areas and the redistribution of fishing effort
Gavin McDonald, Jennifer Bone, Christopher Costello, Gabriel Englander, Jennifer Raynor
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 121, July 2024

Optimal Pricing of a New Utility Service: The Case of Piped Water in Vietnam
Quy-Toan Do, Hanan G. Jacoby
The Review of Economic Studies, June 2024

Informal land markets and ethnic kinship in West African cities
Lucie Letrouit, Harris Selod
Regional Science and Urban Economics, vol. 106, May 2024

Temporary trade shocks and regional development: evidence from the closure of Abidjan port
Forhad Shilpi, M Shahe Emran, Brian Blankespoor, Harold Coulombe
Journal of Economic Geography, vol. 24, March 2024

Using registry data to assess gender-differentiated land and credit market effects of urban land policy reform: Evidence from Lesotho
Daniel Ali, Klaus Deininger
World Development, vol. 175, March 2024

How Can a Carbon Tax Benefit Developing Economies with Informality? A CGE Analysis for Cote d'Ivoire
Govinda Timilsina, Yazid Dissou, Michael Toman, Dirk Heine
Climate Policy, vol. 24, 2024

Legacy of Tom Tietenberg in Research
Carolyn Fischer
International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, vol. 17, September 2023

Impacts of a Mandatory Shift to Decentralized Online Auctions on Revenue from Public Land Leases in Ukraine
Klaus W. Deininger, Daniel Ayalew Ali, Roman Neyter
Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, vol. 213, September 2023

Measuring Total Carbon Pricing
Paolo Agnolucci, Carolyn Fischer, Dirk Heine, Mariza Montes de Oca Leon, Joseph Pryor, Kathleen Patroni, and Stéphane Hallegatte
World Bank Research Observer, September 2023

Books and Reports

Carbon Pricing Around the World
Joseph Pryor, Paolo Agnolucci, Carolyn Fischer, Dirk Heine, Mariza Montes de Oca Leon, April 2023
This book chapter provides an overview of approaches for measuring carbon pricing. It summarizes World Bank indicators for tracking direct carbon pricing, including recent trends, as well as outlining the methodologies and limitations (https://carbonpricingdashboard.worldbank.org/). This chapter appears in the book Data for a Greener World: A Guide for Practitioners and Policymakers.
More research from Carolyn Fischer
Minimizing Ecological Damage from Road Improvement in Tropical Forests: Evidence from Bolivia, Cameroon and Myanmar
Susmita Dasgupta, David R. Wheeler, 2022
The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the vulnerabilities of socio-economic systems globally and exposed the risks that natural capital degradation imposes on human health, economy, and society. This book studies the environmental challenges faced by developing economies in a post-COVID-19 world. This chapter appears in the book Environmental Economics in Developing Countries: Issues and Challenges.
More research from Susmita Dasgupta
Economics of Renewable Energy: A Comparison of Electricity Production Costs Across Technologies
Govinda R. Timilsina, Kalim Shah, May 2022
This chapter appears in the book Oxford Encyclopedia of Environmental Economics. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Environmental Economics focuses on the most important research topics in environmental and natural resource economics, with a treatment of close to 100 different research areas.
More research from Govinda R. Timilsina
Economic Approach to Intergenerational Mobility: Measures, Methods, And Challenges in Developing Countries
M. Shahe Emran, Forhad Shilpi, March 2022
Social mobility is the hope of economic development and the mantra of a good society. There are disagreements about what constitutes social mobility, but there is broad agreement that people should have roughly equal chances of success regardless of their economic status at birth. Concerns about rising inequality have engendered a renewed interest in social mobility—especially in the developing world. This book chapter provides a critical survey and synthesis of the recent economic literature on intergenerational mobility in developing countries, with a focus on data and methodological challenges.
More research from Forhad Shilpi
Energy Subsidies in Russia: Size Impact and Potential for Reform
Apurva Sanghi, Jevgenijs Steinbuks, December 1, 2021
This report seeks to understand the size, impacts, and potential for energy subsidy reform in the Russian Federation to inform policymakers as they explore approaches to reducing such subsidies.
Coping with Climate Change in the Sundarbans: Lessons from Multidisciplinary Studies
Susmita Dasgupta, David Wheeler, Md. Istiak Sobhan, Sunando Bandyopadhyay, Ainun Nishat, and Tapas Paul, November 2020
Climate change is a major threat to the Sundarbans — the world’s largest remaining contiguous mangrove forest — wetland of international importance, and the surrounding poor communities whose livelihoods depend on its natural resources. This book synthesizes multiyear, multidisciplinary studies that assess the vulnerability of this ecosystem and its neighboring coastal communities and recommend “resilient-smart” adaptation measures. The methods and findings will be of interest to development practitioners, policy makers, and researchers focused on island nations and countries worldwide that feature high density populations and economic activity in low-lying coastal regions vulnerable to sea-level rise.
Download the report | More research by Susmita Dasgupta