Economics & Development

Viet Nam is committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 15.8% by 2030 and meeting its net-zero emission target by 2050. The industrial sector, including the power sector, is the primary emitter and its active participation is necessary to achieve the targets. This study uses a stated-preference survey Vietnamese firms to understand their preferences in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The study finds that Vietnamese firms prefer to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions through improving energy efficiency, substituting fossil fuels with non-fossil fuels and changing production processes. The ranking of preferences differs across the size, type, ownership and geographical location of firms. Their willingness to reduce emissions is driven by anticipated future regulations, social image, and global trends. They consider the lack of finance to be the main barrier to investing in climate change mitigation measures. The study also finds that if a carbon tax were imposed at 100,000 local currency (around US$5) per ton of carbon dioxide, over 60% of firms would be willing to invest less than 5% of their annual revenue in greenhouse gas mitigation; only less than 10% of the firms are willing to allocate more than 10% their revenue for greenhouse gas mitigation. The findings also show that larger firms and state-owned firms have a higher willingness to pay for emission mitigation measures. Given the small sample size and static preference approach, the findings should be interpreted as indicative rather than conclusive.

The development objective of the Promoting a More Equitable, Sustainable and Safer Education Project for Haiti is to improve the Ministry of National Education and Vocational Training (MENFP) planning functions and support access to primary education with improved learning conditions. The additional financing responds to intensifying socioeconomic hardship marked by political instability, insecurity, high inflation, displacement, and climate shocks such as Hurricane Melissa, and is intended to preserve human capital and mitigate food security risks while addressing cost overruns and sustaining implementation through an extension of the project timeline and a reallocation across categories. The Bank will work in four areas: first, system governance and data use by strengthening the Education Management Information System (EMIS), rolling out digital licenses to operate for private schools, piloting a digital application to determine accreditation levels with data integrated into EMIS, and providing pedagogical support for mother tongue instruction in grades 1–2 using low-tech digital tools and energy-efficient information and communication technologies; second, access and learning conditions in targeted public and nonpublic schools in the Grand Sud, with security-feasible pilots in the West department, by scaling up school meals with vitamin A and deworming, supporting school functioning (teacher and director training, school governance, teaching and learning materials, water sanitation and hygiene, school gardens, and student fees), introducing ICT-enabled formative assessments in early grades, and expanding conditional private school enrollment grants that use new EMIS data to reduce gender gaps; third, safe and climate-resilient infrastructure by repairing, rehabilitating, reconstructing, and furnishing public schools, upgrading school kitchens, food storage, and water sanitation and hygiene facilities, and advancing a national school infrastructure investment strategy that emphasizes resilient designs, local production, and tree planting; and fourth, project management, monitoring and evaluation, and citizen engagement, including enhanced remote monitoring, end-to-end funds traceability, and a stakeholder hotline and surveys to incorporate feedback into implementation. The project intends to consolidate and scale results over two additional school years, including expanding school feeding to approximately 120,000 public and 20,000 private students annually, supporting about 85,000 public school students each year with improved learning conditions, issuing digital licenses to the vast majority of identified nonpublic schools, piloting digital accreditation and formative assessment tools, increasing the number of classrooms repaired, rehabilitated, rebuilt or newly built with climate-resilient standards, improving access to fresh hot meals through upgraded school kitchens, and providing targeted enrollment support to girls in private schools to narrow parity gaps, while coordinating closely with the Global Partnership for Education, the Inter-American Development Bank, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the United Nations Office for Project Services, the World Food Programme, and relevant World Bank sectors to ensure policy coherence, operational feasibility, and sustained development impact.