Romania: Climate Change and Low Carbon Green Growth Program (OPERA-CLIMA)

Romania is committed to fighting climate change and pursuing low carbon development. Therefore, the Government of Romania, through the Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests (MEWF), 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 MEWF 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

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.

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.

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.

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: Implementation capacity building of MECC.