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The World Bank has significantly increased its use of development policy finance (DPF) to provide fast budget support to countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. While many of these loans contain prior actions with positive environmental co-benefits, few have climate change as their overarching objective. The author argues that the Bank must update its outdated 2004/2008 guidance for assessing environmental impacts, improve the reporting of negative effects, and actively promote climate-focused policy reforms to ensure long-term sustainable recovery.

The external review assesses WRI's transition toward a more global presence, specifically its expansion into China, India, and Brazil, and its shift toward a 'do-tank' model. While praising WRI's analytical excellence, reputation, and successful engagement with the business sector, the review identifies needs for better program focus, increased attention to poverty and gender, and a more systematic approach to partnership management. It recommends that WRI refine its balance between strategic research and tactical implementation to maintain its comparative advantage as a high-impact global think tank.

The GSA's National Deep Energy Retrofit (NDER) program demonstrated that deep energy retrofits can achieve significantly higher savings than typical federal projects, with 10 GSA ESPC projects averaging 38% savings compared to 21% in other agencies. A stakeholder workshop identified key barriers in project delivery, team dynamics, integrative design, operations and maintenance (O&M), and project economics. Recommended improvements include transitioning to whole-building performance contracts for O&M and combining energy efficiency contracts with appropriated renovation funds to incentivize deeper savings.