ESG and Of Interest News
Global Gas Flaring Hits Highest Level Since 2007, Undermining Energy Security, Access, and Emissions Goals
July 18, 2025-New report estimates wasted gas amounts to Africa’s annual gas consumption
Global gas flaring surged for a second year in a row, wasting about $63 billion in lost energy and setting back efforts to manage emissions and boost energy security and access.
Flaring, the practice of burning natural gas during oil extraction, reached 151 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2024, up 3 bcm from the previous year and the highest level in almost two decades.
An estimated 389 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent-46 million of that from unburnt methane, one of the most potent greenhouse gases-was needlessly emitted.
While some countries have reduced flaring, the top nine largest-flaring countries continue to account for three-quarters of all flaring, but less than half of global oil production. Satellite data compiled and analyzed in the World Bank's annual Global Gas Flaring Tracker shows that flaring intensity-the amount of gas flared per barrel of oil produced-has remained stubbornly high for the last 15 years.
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Source: worldbank.org
OECD-Environment at a Glance Indicators
June 30, 2025--Human activities, particularly the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), are disrupting the earth-atmosphere system by enhancing the natural greenhouse effect. This leads to rising temperatures and broader climate disruption. Changes in land use and forestry practices also influence the balance of GHGs, as they affect the capacity of carbon sinks to capture or release emissions.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) primarily from fossil fuels combustion and deforestation, is the main contributor to climate change, comprising the largest share of global GHG emissions.
National emissions are increasingly influenced by global demand and supply chains. As carbon-intensive production is relocated abroad, domestic emission reductions may be partially or wholly offset by increases elsewhere. This underscores the need to assess emissions from both production and consumption perspectives.
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Source: oecd.org
Extreme Heat Could Cost Cities in Europe and Central Asia 2.5% of GDP Annually by 2050
June 24, 2025-Cities across Europe and Central Asia (ECA) have experienced a sharp and consistent rise in temperatures in recent decades, which is projected to triple the already tens of thousands of heat-related deaths and decrease annual GDP by an estimated 2.5 percent by 2050, according to a new report by the World Bank and the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery released today.
The report, Unlivable: How Cities in Europe and Central Asia Can Survive and Thrive in a Hotter Future, says the number of hot days in the region's major cities, where over 70% of people live, could more than triple by 2050, with many cities likely to experience more than 40-70 additional hot days per year, especially in Southern Europe and Turkiye.
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Source: worldbank.org
Global Energy Transition Gains Ground, but Security and Capital Challenges Persist
June 18, 2025--The World Economic Forum 2025 Energy Transition Index shows the fastest progress since pre-COVID-19, with 65% of countries improving and 28% advancing across all core dimensions-security, sustainability and equity.
Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway and Switzerland top the Index, driven by strong policy commitment, infrastructure and clean energy diversification.
Emerging Europe posted the biggest gains while Emerging Asia outpaced the global average.
Despite $2 trillion in clean energy investment in 2024, energy security stalled and emissions hit record highs, highlighting the need for resilient grids, digital infrastructure and targeted capital flows.
Global progress towards secure, equitable and sustainable energy is accelerating after years of sluggish gains, according to a World Economic Forum report released today. However, rising geopolitical tensions, investment gaps, and a growing disconnect between clean energy innovation and deployment where it is needed most threaten to undermine momentum.
The Fostering Effective Energy Transition 2025 report, developed in collaboration with Accenture, benchmarks the performance of energy systems of 118 countries across three performance dimensions-security, sustainability and equity- and five readiness factors: political commitment, finance and investment, innovation, infrastructure, and education and human capital. In 2025, 65% of countries improved their Energy Transition Index scores, with 28% advancing across all three core dimensions.
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Source: (WEF) World Economic Forum
Pacific Economic Update: Slowing Growth Highlights Need for More Inclusive Workforce
June 17, 2025-Increasing women's workforce participation could boost GDP per capita by over 20 percent across Pacific countries, shows World Bank report
Economic growth is slowing across the Pacific as countries face weak global growth, natural hazards and climate related shocks.
The World Bank's flagship Pacific Economic Update, released today in Honiara, projects regional growth to fall to 2.6 percent in 2025, down from 5.5 percent in 2023.
This comes as post-COVID recovery fades, tourism weakens in some countries, and global policy uncertainty rises. Inflation is easing but remains above pre-pandemic levels-keeping the cost of living stubbornly high.
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Source: worldbank.org
Global Carbon Pricing Mobilizes Over $100 Billion for Public Budgets
June 10, 2025--Over one quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions are covered by carbon pricing
Carbon pricing revenues exceeded $100 billion in 2024, according to a new World Bank report released today. Over half of this revenue generated for public budgets was earmarked for environment, infrastructure, and development projects, representing a slight increase from previous years.
The report-State and Trends of Carbon Pricing 2025-notes that there are now 80 carbon pricing instruments in operation worldwide, a net increase of five over the past year. The report shows that all large middle-income economies have now either implemented or are considering direct carbon pricing, with emissions trading systems (ETSs) accounting for most of the new and planned instruments.
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Source: worldbank.org
Accelerating Blue Finance: Instruments, Case Studies, and Pathways to Scale
June 7, 2025--The ocean drives economic prosperity and environmental stability for billions of people. Yet it is under threat from overfishing, pollution and climate change.
Public financing isn't enough to respond. The answer: unlock private capital to conserve marine life, prevent overfishing, and build coastal infrastructure to resist floods.
Blue finance-or a range of financial instruments-can plug the gap. But accelerating these solutions requires action from governments, private investors and local communities.
Accelerating and scaling the effective use of blue finance requires a shift from fragmented pilot projects to coordinated, system-wide action. Blue finance instruments-such as blue bonds, debt-for-nature swaps, and parametric insurance-have already demonstrated their potential to address fiscal pressures, enhance climate resilience, and support ecosystem restoration across diverse contexts. These successes were not isolated; they were underpinned by conductive policy frameworks, robust data systems, inclusive governance structures, and the strategic alignment of financial instruments with policy objectives.
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Source: worldbank.org
The Longevity Dividend
June 3, 2025--Aging populations should be embraced, not feared
The story of demographic doom has become familiar: Declining birth rates will cause populations to shrink, while longer lifespans will increase the costs of pensions and eldercare. Relatively fewer workers will have to pay for it all.
This story is partly true: One in ten people worldwide are now over 65, and that proportion is projected to double over the next 50 years (see Chart 1). Population decline has already begun in places such as Japan and China. Those countries are also experiencing a sharp increase in median age, as is Europe.
But the pessimism around an aging population is too one-sided. In fact, the combination of older people becoming more numerous and more likely to work makes them essential to economic dynamism.
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Source: IMF.org
Sustaining Growth in an Aging World
June 2, 2025--Older populations need not lead to slumping economic growth and mounting fiscal pressures
The demographic dividend that has supported global economic expansion in recent decades will soon make way for a demographic drag. In advanced economies the share of working-age people is shrinking already.
The largest emerging market economies will reach this demographic turning point within the decade, while the most populous low-income countries will get there by 2070. What do falling fertility and rising longevity mean for the world economy?
Our recent study with coauthors from the IMF's Research Department weighs the economic headwinds from older populations against the tailwinds from healthy aging. We show that improved labor market outcomes for people aged 50 and older, thanks to better health, could contribute about 0.4 percentage point annually to global GDP growth in 2025-50.
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Source: IMF.org
Green Technologies: Decarbonizing Development in East Asia and Pacific
June 2, 2025--East Asia is helping the rest of the world decarbonize and encouraging the domestic adoption of renewable energy. But there is an imbalance: Even as the region's innovation and investment improve global access to green technologies, the region's own emissions continue to grow, because of the reluctance to penalize carbon-intensive practices.
The region has helped advance green tech development and diffusion
Countries in the region, notably China, are contributing significantly to the development and global diffusion of green technologies.
The division of labor and high levels of competition across countries in the region-such as Viet Nam in solar panels and Thailand in vehicle components-have led to significant reductions in costs.
China and other EAP countries hold a large share of downstream segments of clean energy supply chains. As a global manufacturing hub, the region is uniquely positioned to harness the green transition to boost its own economic growth.
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Source: worldbank.org
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