This paper discusses the context and the recent developments of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the People’s Republic of China and provides recommendations to harness the full potential of these procurement arrangements.

2014 might prove to be a landmark year for the development of PPPs in China. Many formal steps have been taken in this direction by leading institutions in this area, such as the State Council, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance. In its first section, this paper describes the main drivers for PPPs in China in the contemporary context, which is to say the high level of local government debt and the daunting funding needs for new infrastructure in the coming decades. This paper also details relevant government documents and recent decisions. The second section discusses some important barriers that might prevent the development of sound and successful PPP projects. The third and last part provides recommendations to fully take advantage of the PPP approach to infrastructure procurement. We are of the view that such agreements should not be considered as a mere source of financing. Instead, value for money should be carefully assessed considering the whole life cycle of assets. Suggestions to establish performance-based specifications and mitigate political and regulatory risks are also provided.

Major developments in trade policy are currently taking place in the mega-regional trade agreements, in particular in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, and the Trade in Services Agreement.

These agreements are setting new standards and breaking new ground in setting the rules for global commerce. In addition, a large number of other agreements are incorporating state-of-the-art provisions governing at least some aspects of trade and investment. These include the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the Tripartite Free Trade Agreement, and a large number of bilateral trade and investment agreements. Complementing and internalizing the recent WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement, these agreements are introducing new WTO-plus rules for services and investment, addressing emerging issues, such as electronic commerce and the role of state-owned enterprises, and introducing whole new subject areas to agreements. There is deep interest in understanding the impact of these new developments, both on the part of policy makers in countries that are party to the negotiations and in countries that are excluded, but which will nonetheless be affected by the new standards and rules. Traditional quantitative trade models are being adapted to provide comprehensive answers. This paper reviews these models and considers the extent to which they capture the full effects of the new age agreements. We find that the most comprehensive approach to modelling the mega-regionals is to employ a Computable General Equilibrium model of the type used for multi-sector, multi-region trade analysis. These are the only models with sufficient structural features to capture the main focus areas of the mega-regionals, namely services, investment, and the new ― behind the border‖ issues, while still covering the traditional areas of liberalization, such as tariffs and at least some features of agricultural trade. However, given the wide range of CGE models with different features, inevitably the impact of mega-regionals is probably best captured by meta-analysis of a suite of CGE-based studies, drawing on satellite models for additional structural detail and on sufficient statistics estimates as reality checks.

De 15 a 19 de septiembre de 2014, el Instituto Internacional para el Desarrollo Sostenible (por sus siglas en inglés, IISD) y la Dirección General de Minería (DGM) del Ministerio de Energía y Minas de la República Dominicana han desarrollado el Curso de Capacitación “Construyendo Capacidades para Implementar el Marco de Políticas Mineras en la República Dominicana”, en Santo Domingo.

Los tres primeros días del curso han sido dedicados a la Optimización de Beneficios Socioeconómico; los tres últimos, a la Minería Artesanal y en Pequeña Escala. Enfocando en esos dos temas, el curso ha dado atención a las principales preocupaciones identificadas en el trabajo de evaluación realizado por IISD sobre la preparación de la República Dominicana para implementar el Marco de Política Minera (MPM) del Foro Intergubernamental sobre Minería, Minerales, Metales y Desarrollo Sostenible (por sus siglas en inglés, IGF). Han participado del curso funcionarios del gobierno, mineros y representantes de comunidades, de cooperativas y del sector privado.

On September 15-19, 2014, IISD and the Mining Directorate of the Ministry of Energy and Mines of the Dominican Republic offered the training course "Building Capacity to Implement the Mining Policy Framework in the Dominican Republic" in Santo Domingo. The first three days of the course were dedicated to Social and Economic Benefit Optimization, and the final two days to Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining. By focusing on these topics, the course addressed the concerns identified in IISD's assessment of the Dominican Republic's readiness to implement the Mining Policy Framework (MPF) of the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development (IGF). Participants included government officials, miners, and representatives of mining communities, cooperatives and companies.

The Ontario Ministry of Environment and Climate Change released its Ontario Climate Change Discussion Paper 2015. This brief outlines IISD’s response to proposed actions related to:

• Supporting climate-friendly technology
• Low-carbon growth, buildings and communities
• An instrument and design features for pricing carbon
• Leveraging traditional knowledge
• Recognizing the importance of adaptation
• Integrating adaptation into infrastructure investment
• Eliminating fossil fuel subsidies

IISD recommends a cap-and-trade system for Ontario that covers as many sectors and activities as possible, since broad coverage creates a level playing field for economic sectors and helps ensure that the most low-cost mitigation opportunities are realized. It is integral to ensure that the system is credible and stringent, that monitoring and verification are strong, that there is integrity and that a viable price for carbon emerges in Ontario.

Efforts to help fragile states move onto a path toward stability and sustainability continue to face enormous challenges.

Climate change is one of these challenges. This is true for a number of reasons: the high exposure of many fragile states to climate risks, their economic reliance on climate-dependent sectors (particularly rain-fed agriculture), and their histories of conflict, poverty and weak governance, which all serve to increase vulnerability to climate change.

With the scientific community painting an increasingly dire picture of its potential scope and speed, climate change and variability could undermine, and even reverse, much of the development and peacebuilding progress that has been made in fragile states. Many now see climate change and its impacts on the environment and natural resources as a challenge to human security and a potential driver of conflict.

While remaining grounded in good development practices and processes, peacebuilding interventions in fragile and conflict-affected states increasingly need to strive to simultaneously achieve peacebuilding and climate resilience objectives through:

• Climate-resilient peacebuilding interventions that take into consideration the implications of near- and long-term climate risk as a contributing factor in driving conflict.
• Conflict-sensitive climate change responses designed to ensure that, at a minimum, interventions do not increase the risk of conflict and, preferably, serve to enhance peacebuilding opportunities.

Drawing on desk-based research, practitioner surveys and interviews, and workshop discussions, this paper seeks to provide some initial guidance on how this may be achieved.

The Indian government’s declaration of a formal end to diesel price regulation in October 2014 marked the culmination of a two-year process of price reform.

The effective removal of diesel subsidies, although not yet accompanied by comprehensive price decontrol, nevertheless represents an important milestone in the reform of energy pricing in India, and provides policy-makers with a useful case study of successful fossil fuel subsidy reform. This report investigates lessons learned.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) has made a major contribution to Viet Nam’s impressive structural transformation and economic growth since the 1990s.

As the country continues to pursue an ambitious development agenda, with FDI likely to play a central role in this process, it is important for policy-makers to better understand the needs and concerns of foreign businesses regarding energy supply and pricing. The satisfaction of businesses with domestic energy market conditions may be one factor in determining the ease with which Viet Nam can attract the high-quality FDI that can help deliver key developmental goals.

This report discusses the issues of energy supply and pricing issues and provides recommendations for the design of an energy policy that addresses, in particular, the concerns and interests of FDI investors in Viet Nam in this sphere.

Because electricity is an essential commodity for everyday life, the Chinese government mostly regulates its retail price.

In order to ensure that all sections of society can access electricity affordably, pricing is done in blocks so that the poor, who consume less, pay less. Under such a tiered electricity pricing (TEP) system, electricity consumers pay a low rate for an initial consumption block and a higher rate as they increase use beyond that block. TEP is widely used by power sector regulators and can, if properly designed, improve equity by providing the poor with subsidized rates, while maintaining economic efficiency (i.e., avoiding overconsumption) and limiting subsidy expenditure. In October 2010, China introduced a TEP pricing reform for the residential sector in accordance with an official document (No. [2010] 2617) issued by China’s National Development and Reform Commission. Previously, households were charged a flat rate, which varied by province, regardless of how much each consumed.

This paper reviews and evaluates the TEP reform, examining the impacts on equity, efficiency and subsidy expenditure. It also looks at how problems associated with the reform were addressed, and the form and mode of communication with stakeholders.

In July 2014, Egypt introduced long-awaited energy subsidy cuts. These had been in the pipeline for over five years, but repeatedly delayed by political instability.

Their announcement was therefore seen as a sign of consolidation by the new President, Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, as well as a positive signal to external investors. With energy subsidies habitually driving a large, structural fiscal deficit, and constant problems of shortages, low fuel and electricity prices were widely seen as a luxury that Egypt could no longer afford. The most significant step was the 64 per cent hike in diesel prices, but similar increases affected electricity and a wide range of refined products—the most notable exclusion being heavily subsidized liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Moreover, the subsidy reductions were set out as the first step in a five-year program to eliminate energy subsidies entirely (again, excluding LPG).

This paper seeks to outline the background to Egypt’s move, assess its implementation and the public response, and to analyze future probabilities. It concludes by drawing out lessons for other countries facing similar pressures./p>

The purpose of this document is to assist Member States in identifying potential indicators for targets proposed under SDG 12 (Ensure Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns) and for related targets in twelve of the other proposed SDGs.

This discussion paper aims to contribute to the development of an integrated, science-based set of indicators to monitor progress towards sustainable consumption and production (SCP) patterns which support achievement of the SDGs. The paper highlights a number of potential indicators which can serve for different goals and targets and which thus contribute to making the targets more actionable and transformative, by promoting an integrated approach to shifting towards SCP patterns and achieving the SDGs.