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ESMAP and the  World Bank hosted a session on Modeling Tools for Low Carbon Planning for the invited guests in the US Agencies working on Climate Change on January 5, 2011. Participants included experts from USAID/GCC, US EPA, US NREL, the US State Department, USDA/FAS, World Bank Institute, ESMAP and the World Bank.

USAID’s Global Climate Change team presented on the Low Emission’s Development Strategiesprogram and expressed his team’s interest in learning about what the Bank and ESMAP have been working on and how the teams can better collaborate both here in Washington and in the client countries. The CLEAN Network(Coordinated Low Emissions Assistance Network) also presented their work on improving communication and coordination of organizations assisting developing countries with preparation and implementation of comprehensive low GHG emission development plans and strategies.

The World Bank and ESMAP presented the Energy Forecasting Framework and Emissions Consensus Tool (EFFECT), the Transport Activity Measurement Toolkit (TAMT), the Marginal Abatement Cost Tool (MACTool), and the Land-Use/Agriculture Tool. Additionally, presentations were made on Transmission Planning for Low Carbon Development and Poland’s experience in linking Macro-Economic and Bottom-up Models. Presentations can be found below.

Participants from the US Agencies, the Bank and ESMAP engaged in discussions about the specific uses and challenges of the tools in modeling, forecasting and data collections. Experts were curious to learn about the efforts of data collection and assumptions made within various tools. The teams discussed the nature of these tools for the targeted clients – developing countries and how critical it is for a free and user-friendly platform to be designed and developed for successful dissemination and use in the field. It was agreed that these tools served as a good platform to engage clients in discussions on low carbon and provide scenarios and models potential options and interventions, which will then open the door for potential policy dialogue in this area.

The key questions raised regarding the modeling tools presented were about the overall use of the models and the dissemination strategy and plan to apply models in other countries. It was noted that ESMAP has developed a knowledge program to disseminate briefings, trainings and tools through various fora and events and would be happy to work further with the LEDS program on this. Moreover, it was noted that the work on climate change taking place throughout the World Bank stems far beyond these modeling tools and crosses over sectors, topics and regions.

Clean Energy > Low Carbon Development > Climate Resilience and Adaptation