Download or read book Reforming the Energy Sector in Transition Economies written by Dale Gray and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1995-01-01 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: World Development Report 1995: Workers in an Integrating World addresses labor and employment--issues that are important for South Asia. Expanding employment and increasing the remuneration of workers are essential to poverty alleviation, which is the primary objective of all countries in the region. This regional perspective examines ways in which workers in South Asia can benefit from greater integration of the global economy through improving their skills or cushioning their transition to new jobs. The paper emphasizes that governments need to develop a framework for labor policies that defines the rights of employers, workers, and labor unions and the framework for collective bargaining and settlement of disputes. Liberalization will lead to market-based development, which is the best way to raise workers' living standards--it encourages firms and workers to invest in physical capital, new technologies, and skills.

Download or read book Energy And Environment In The Transition Economies written by William Chandler and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-02-13 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Energy and environmental issues in the former Soviet sphere rank as global policy priorities for three reasons. First, civilian application of military nuclear materials multiplies the threat of terrorism. Second, Russian and Caspian oil resources affect world markets, Western energy security, and regional stability. Third, climate change may become a global challenge commensurate with the Cold War, and the transition economies--the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe--offer the world's largest and cheapest near-term opportunities for curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, the region remains unprepared to deal with these issues, and Western assistance has failed to help. A "second generation" of reform efforts is needed, led from within, but supported by the West. In Energy and Environmental Policies in the Transition Economies William Chandler synthesizes disparate, specialized analyses and publications. He draws on a relatively large body of research on energy technology, oil and gas markets, geopolitics, finance, economic reform, and environmental science specific to Russia, eastern Europe, and the transition economies. In successive chapters Chandler reviews energy use, energy efficiency, nuclear safety and security, petroleum geoeconomics, coal, utility monopoly and competition, and environmental and climatic change in the former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe. Chandler also considers options for a "second generation" of reform efforts. The subject matter of the book is significant not only for the energy and environmental policies themselves, important though they are, but because those policies in turn affect regional political stability and Western energy security. Energy and Environmental Policies in the Transition Economies will be of considerable interest to policymakers in government, to private-sector actors, to academic scholars, and to students of international energy and environmental politics.

Download or read book Guidelines on Reforming Energy Prices and Subsidies written by United Nations. Economic Commission for Europe and published by New York : United Nations. This book was released on 2003 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These guidelines have been prepared jointly by the UNECE Committee on Environmental Policy and the Committee on Sustainable Energy, and endorsed by the fifth Ministerial Conference, held in Ukraine in May 2003. They contain information on the reform of energy pricing and subsidy schemes so as to avoid market distortions, increase economic efficiency and improve service quality. The guidelines take account of economic, environmental and social concerns to promote the sustainable production, tranmission and use of energy. They will be of particular value to developing countries and transition economies where energy prices may not reflect real economic costs.

Download or read book Stuck in Transition written by Mirlan Aldayarov and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2017-02-27 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The large-scale transformation of Kazakhstan’s power sector following independence in 1991 was reflected by the country’s move toward liberalizing the market and implementing sector regulation. As an early adopter of a liberalized multimarket model consisting of bilateral, spot, balancing, ancillary, and capacity submarkets Kazakhstan’s power sector was regarded a market reform leader among countries of the former Soviet Union, having achieved a much improved supply and demand balance and service quality. However, despite the noteworthy headway, sector reforms remain predominantly as unfinished business. The excess generation capacity that was inherited from the former Soviet Union at a time when the “energy-only†? market prices were too low to attract serious investors has masked the need to reflect on the long-term outlook of the country’s power production. As the investment crunch unfolded in the mid-2000s, a diverging concern almost immediately arose; that is, the capacity additions of existing and planned generations may not be sufficient to keep pace with the perpetuating and significant increase in the demand for power. Instead of applying market mechanisms to allow prices to rise and reflect the underlying supply and demand gap, the GoK addressed the issue by implementing administrative, command-and-control measures. This study draws on the World Bank’s long-standing engagement in Kazakhstan’s energy sector and a number of recent technical assistance and advisory support activities. The study aims to (i) objectively identify the principal challenges faced by the Kazakhstan power sector in its ongoing transition and outlining potential policy options; and (ii) draw lessons from Kazakhstan’s experience in sector reforms for the broader international audience. The study covers broader sector issues including long-term least-cost power system planning, supply and demand balancing, tariff setting, market structure, and integration of renewable energy.

Download or read book Rethinking Power Sector Reform in the Developing World written by Vivien Foster and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2019-12-05 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the 1990s, a new paradigm for power sector reform was put forward emphasizing the restructuring of utilities, the creation of regulators, the participation of the private sector, and the establishment of competitive power markets. Twenty-five years later, only a handful of developing countries have fully implemented these Washington Consensus policies. Across the developing world, reforms were adopted rather selectively, resulting in a hybrid model, in which elements of market orientation coexist with continued state dominance of the sector. This book aims to revisit and refresh thinking on power sector reform approaches for developing countries. The approach relies heavily on evidence from the past, drawing both on broad global trends and deep case material from 15 developing countries. It is also forward looking, considering the implications of new social and environmental policy goals, as well as the emerging technological disruptions. A nuanced picture emerges. Although regulation has been widely adopted, practice often falls well short of theory, and cost recovery remains an elusive goal. The private sector has financed a substantial expansion of generation capacity; yet, its contribution to power distribution has been much more limited, with efficiency levels that can sometimes be matched by well-governed public utilities. Restructuring and liberalization have been beneficial in a handful of larger middle-income nations but have proved too complex for most countries to implement. Based on these findings, the report points to three major policy implications. First, reform efforts need to be shaped by the political and economic context of the country. The 1990s reform model was most successful in countries that had reached certain minimum conditions of power sector development and offered a supportive political environment. Second, countries found alternative institutional pathways to achieving good power sector outcomes, making a case for greater pluralism. Among the top performers, some pursued the full set of market-oriented reforms, while others retained a more important role for the state. Third, reform efforts should be driven and tailored to desired policy outcomes and less preoccupied with following a predetermined process, particularly since the twenty-first-century century agenda has added decarbonization and universal access to power sector outcomes. The Washington Consensus reforms, while supportive of the twenty-first-century century agenda, will not be able to deliver on them alone and will require complementary policy measures

Download or read book Energy Security in Times of Economic Transition written by Yao Lixia and published by Emerald Group Publishing. This book was released on 2021-01-20 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a quantitative framework for evaluating China’s energy security in the economic transition period and comprehensively explains how China’s macroeconomic reforms have impacted on its energy sector.

Download or read book Energy Subsidies written by Anja von Moltke and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-08 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The need to reform energy subsidies was one of the pressing issues highlighted at the World Summit on Sustainable Development. Many types of subsidy, especially those that encourage the production and use of fossil fuel, and other non-renewable forms of energy, are harmful to the environment. They can also have high financial and economic costs, and often only bring few benefits to the people for whom they are intended.Removing, reducing or restructuring such energy subsidies is helpful for the environment and the economy at the same time. Potential social costs in terms of employment in the conventional energy industry or reduced access to energy could be addressed by redirecting the money formerly spent on subsidies to income support, health, environment, education or regional development programmes.Of course, subsidies can have certain positive consequences, particularly where they are aimed at encouraging more sustainable energy production and use. Temporary support for renewable energy and energy-efficient technologies to overcome market barriers, and measures to improve poor or rural households' access to modern, commercial forms of energy, for instance, could be positive measures in support of sustainable development.Based on ground-breaking work undertaken by UNEP and the International Energy Agency, this book aims to raise awareness of the actual and potential impacts of energy subsidies and provide guidance to policy-makers on how to design and implement energy-subsidy reforms. It provides methodologies for analysing the impact of subsidies and their reform, and reviews experiences with energy subsidies in a number of countries and regions. Drawing on these case studies, it analyses the lessons learned as well as the policy implications, and provides guidance on how to overcome resistance to reform.The book provides an analytical framework which aims to set the scene for the detailed discussion of energy-subsidy issues at the country level. It considers how subsidies are defined, how they can be measured, how big they are and how their effects can be assessed. A more detailed discussion of methodological approaches to the assessment of the economic, environmental and social effects of subsidies and their reform is contained in the Annex.Chapters 3–11 of the book contain country case studies from contributing authors, which review various experiences and issues related to energy subsidies in selected countries, but do not strive for a common approach. They are organised along geographical lines, beginning with a review of energy subsidies generally in OECD countries. Case studies of energy subsidies in transition economies – the Czech and Slovak Republics (Chapter 4) and Russia (Chapter 5) – follow. Three studies of Asian countries focus on the costs of different types of energy subsidy: electricity subsidies in India (Chapter 6), oil subsidies in Indonesia (Chapter 7) and energy subsidies generally in Korea (Chapter 8). Chapter 9 reviews the effect of energy subsidies in Iran and suggests a pragmatic approach to reforming them. This is followed by an assessment of the LPG subsidy programme in Senegal (Chapter 10) and an analysis of the effects of removing coal and oil subsides in Chile (Chapter 11).Chapter 12 analyses the lessons learned from these case studies, focusing on the economic, environmental and social effects and their implications for policy. Finally, Chapter 13 discusses the implications of these findings and makes practical recommendations for designing and implementing policy reforms.This book will be essential for both practitioners and academics involved in the energy sector and for governments and policy-makers wishing to examine the reform of energy subsidies.

Download or read book Energy Sector Reform written by Per Ljung and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Infrastructure Performance and Reform in Developing and Transition Economies written by Lourdes Trujillo and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2005 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Estache, Perelman, and Trujillo review about 80 studies on electricity and gas, water and sanitation, and rail and ports (with a footnote on telecommunications) in developing countries. The main policy lesson is that there is a difference in the relevance of ownership for efficiency between utilities and transport in developing countries. In transport, private operators have tended to perform better than public operators. For utilities, ownership often does not matter as much as sometimes argued. Most cross-country studies find no statistically significant difference in efficiency scores between public and private providers. As for the country-specific studies, some do find differences in performance over time but these differences tend to matter much less than a large number of other variables. Across sectors, private operators functioning in a competitive environment or regulated under price caps or hybrid regulatory regimes tend to catch up best practice faster than public operators. There is a very strong case to push regulators in developing and transition economies toward a more systematic reliance on yardstick competition in a sector in which residual monopoly powers tend to be common. This paper--a product of the Office of the Vice President, Infrastructure Network--is part of a larger effort in the network to document the state of the sector"--World Bank web site.

Download or read book The Power of Renewables written by Chinese Academy of Engineering and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2011-01-29 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States and China are the world's top two energy consumers and, as of 2010, the two largest economies. Consequently, they have a decisive role to play in the world's clean energy future. Both countries are also motivated by related goals, namely diversified energy portfolios, job creation, energy security, and pollution reduction, making renewable energy development an important strategy with wide-ranging implications. Given the size of their energy markets, any substantial progress the two countries make in advancing use of renewable energy will provide global benefits, in terms of enhanced technological understanding, reduced costs through expanded deployment, and reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions relative to conventional generation from fossil fuels. Within this context, the U.S. National Academies, in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), reviewed renewable energy development and deployment in the two countries, to highlight prospects for collaboration across the research to deployment chain and to suggest strategies which would promote more rapid and economical attainment of renewable energy goals. Main findings and concerning renewable resource assessments, technology development, environmental impacts, market infrastructure, among others, are presented. Specific recommendations have been limited to those judged to be most likely to accelerate the pace of deployment, increase cost-competitiveness, or shape the future market for renewable energy. The recommendations presented here are also pragmatic and achievable.

Download or read book Reforming the Power Sector in Transition written by Rabindra Nepal and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 47 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Transition written by and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Economic Reform and Environmental Performance in Transition Economies written by Gordon Hughes and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1999-01-01 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ..".transition has proved to be a much longer and more difficult process than most had anticipated, and progress has varied. By 1998 only one country, Poland (which embarked on economic reform before the rest of the region), had reestablished sustained economic growth and surpassed the pretransition level of real gross domestic product (GDP)." - From 'Economic Reform and Environmental Performance in Transition Economies' Most global economy and environmental watchers expect the transition to a market economy to yield environmental benefits. The changing incentives that a market economy introduces should foster more efficient production, better use of resources, and increased community input. The advanced reformers of the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries proved this to be the case. They improved energy efficiency and reduced emissions intensity of pollutants. The slower-reforming countries of the Newly Independent States (NIS) also experienced lower pollution. However, that downturn coincided with the economic decline, which shut down many major polluters. This report reviews progress in environmental trends since transition began. It looks at air and water pollution and health indicators in the trends and in light of the environmental issues identified in the Environmental Action Programme for Central and Eastern Europe. It continues and builds on the World Bank's work in analyzing the environmental effects of transition, restructuring, and privatization with a view to identifying priority areas for investment and policy initiatives. The report will interest environmental policy makers and practitioners.

Download or read book Electricity Reform in China India and Russia written by Yi-Chong Xu and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2004 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examining the electricity industry in China, India, and Russia, Xu (political science, St. Francis Xavier University, Canada) explores the way that local conditions and institutions shape the commitment, direction, and speed of public utility reform in the three countries. He analyzes the World Bank's involvement in economic reforms in developing a

Download or read book Reforming Energy Subsidies written by United Nations Environment Programme: Division of Technology, Industry and Economics and published by UNEP/Earthprint. This book was released on 2002 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Subsidies on the supply and use of energy have emerged as a major theme in international discussions and negotiations aimed at promoting sustainable development. Energy subsidies matter, both because they are big and because they affect in wide-ranging and diverse ways the economy, social welfare and the environment, the three dimensions of sustainability. Reforming energy subsidies must, therefore, be a central plank of government efforts to promote energy systems that strike a better balance between these three dimensions. This booklet draws on recent work on energy-subsidy reform carried out by UNEP and the International Energy Agency. It summarizes in non-technical language the central issues related to energy subsidies and key messages for policy-makers looking to reform subsidy programs.

Download or read book Economies in Transition written by Alice Galenson and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2004-01-01 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Latin American Development Forum promotes debate and disseminates knowledge and analysis on economic and social development issues in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Institutional Sponsors of this series are the World Bank, United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), and Inter-American Development Bank (IADB). The transition economies of the Europe and Central Asia Region faced unprecedented political, economic, and social change after me break-up of the Soviet Union. With assistance from the World Bank and other donors, many countries quickly accomplished a number of reforms, but progress in others has been slower. Much has been achieved--"the private share of GDP in the transition countries is nearly 70 percent, and 8 countries have joined the EU--"but much remains to be completed.

Download or read book Growth Potential of Energy Sector Reforms written by Nela Vlahinić and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The aim of this research is to investigate the impact of energy sector reforms on electricity generation and thus economic growth in EU and Southeast European countries. The paper aims at clarifying whether the impact of energy sector reforms on generation efficiency differs among countries according to their level of development and regional characteristics. Our hypothesis is that the EU reform model is not appropriate for all Member States and Southeast European countries since it does not improve efficiency in electricity generation in all countries and therefore, it can hamper economic growth. For testing the defined hypothesis the panel regression model with fixed effects has been used. The research results show that unlike in the EU-15 (old Member States), energy sector reforms in the EU-12 (new Member States), and selected Southeast European countries (Energy Community contracting parties) have no significant impact on electricity transmission and distribution losses. These evidences imply that the uniform EU reform model does not improve efficiency of electricity generation in less developed countries. On the contrary it can even hamper economic growth and therefore it cannot be appropriate for all Member States. The reason lies in the fact that successful reform model requires adequate level of institutional resources that are missing in most transition and post-transition countries.