WB's Wes convinced Romania can become a regional leader in terms of sustainable, environmentally friendly growth

Romania can improve its living standards while also achieving ambitious climate goals, and can become a leader in the region in terms of sustainable and environmentally friendly growth, World Bank Country Director for the European Union Marina Wes declared on Tuesday at the launch event of the World Bank Group's Romania Country Climate and Development Report."We live in very difficult times. The war in Ukraine and the resulting energy crisis, together with growing global instability, are among the profound challenges facing the region. In times like these it is hard to think of bold measures to address climate change, but they are needed now more than ever. As I mentioned, climate change is already having a devastating impact and makes other crises even more difficult. In Romania, rising temperatures and increasingly frequent heat waves pose dangers to people, economy and infrastructure. The annual losses due to floods alone are estimated to amount to around 2 billion euros per year," Wes told the launch event.She stated that this is the first World Bank report on a EU member country, "a country with high incomes"."I strongly believe that Romania can become a leader in the region and beyond in terms of sustainable and environmentally friendly growth. The report presents the options available to Romania to respond to the climate crisis and I believe that, overall, the message is a positive one. While the challenges of decarbonization are considerable, with the proper mix of structural, social and economic reforms, and effective investments underlined by public, private and EU funds, Romania can improve living standards while achieving its climate goals," said the WB director.Marina Wes mentioned that the report proposes a pathway to net-zero emissions until 2050, with a focus on priority areas of action, which will be essential in this direction."I want to emphasize that we, at the World Bank Group, are ready to support Romania's leading role in the coming period and are looking forward to strengthening our collaboration, which is already good and strong," Wes pointed out.In his turn, report coordinator Marc Sadler, program leader for Sustainable Development and Infrastructure at the World Bank, stated that the first conclusion is that Romania has taken "some extraordinary measures" in recent decades and that, despite lingering difficulties related to economic sustainability, the country is on the right track."Emissions already decreased between 1990 and 2018. They had already gone down by 53 percent. In 2021 they were at 72 percent, but those were the years of Covid. Anyway, Romania is very far along the way to the net-zero emission target. We are talking about emissions here, mainly energy. (...) If we look to see where the obvious carbon-generating energies are used, we are fist of all looking at transport and industry and not necessarily at power generation itself. The good news here is that even with existing technologies and with a very conservative view on the future technologies like hydrogen, there is a clear pathway, as we expect overall energy demand to double," Sadler explained.He added that Romania has chances to triple its living standard until 2050, based on roadmaps, policies and investments."The opportunities created by the green economy in Romania already exist, but they must be used more. As we have stated in the report, people are actually at the center of the transition. The crucial condition for a green transition is having a skilled workforce to work in these green industries and the training of staff will be an essential part. It is important that this is a fair transition, that no one is left behind, that we move towards 2050 in such a way as to make sure that the vulnerable, the disadvantaged, have the opportunity to raise their living standard," the World Bank official said.Sadler pointed out that there will definitely be certain costs, but, in his opinion, the driving motto should be "investment in the new green economy"."If we look at the numbers, not only at the adaptation part, but especially at the part of industry and transition, we see 355 billion from now until 2050. The important message is that if these investments were made in the brown economy, that is in business-as-usual mode, the bill would be 300 billion. So the difference is only 55 billion," Sadler said, stressing that governmental coordination is essential, because it is extremely difficult for a ministry or an institution to address these challenges all by itself.The World Bank launched on Tuesday Romania's Country Climate and Development Report. Romania is the first EU country the WB is preparing this analysis for, on how 2030 and 2050 climate goals can be achieved.