Regional context: 

South Asia is home to some of the world’s countries most vulnerable to climate change and disasters. In the past decade alone, nearly 700 million people– half of the Region’s population– were affected by one or more climate-related disasters! Now, changing weather patterns are expected to impact directly over 800 million people by 2050 and will continue to burden South Asian countries’ economies. Between 2000 and 2017, disasters caused by natural hazards in the Region caused damages worth $149.27 billion. World Bank estimates suggest that climate change could bring 62 million people below the extreme poverty line in the SAR by 2030, mostly caused by agricultural impacts. Hotspot areas with an overlap of extreme poverty and high vulnerability (for example, soil salinization in Bangladesh) already exist in the Region. On the energy side, the energy mix in the Region relies on coal; road transport is expensive, inefficient, and insufficient, and rapid urbanization continues to offer opportunities for engagement. Energy access remains a challenge in the Region’s rural areas, offering opportunities for decentralized renewables and clean cooking

The South Asia Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management Unit (SSACD) is a highly decentralized team of about 35 technical professionals! We work on strengthening SAR’s climate and disaster resilience through enhancing early warning and disaster preparedness, rapid response to disasters in the Region, including rapid damage assessments, structuring reconstruction efforts. SSACD, in cooperation with other GPs and CMUs, leads on the design of ground-breaking climate action for SAR. This requires partnerships with countries to mobilize additional capital for mitigation and adaptation action in identified different priority actions in different countries. On mitigation, the priority areas include urban (smart cities and mass transit systems), energy (scale-up of solar and wind, hydropower development, and electricity transmission), and transport (modal shift from road transport to railways and waterways). On adaptation, the priority area with the highest indicative financing needs is DRM/urban/environment, with activities on flood management, coastal management and resilience, and forest management. Priority areas also include climate-smart agriculture and water management. 

The unit is leading the effort to finalize and then implement the SAR Climate Change Action Plan that will demonstrate and support robust and transformative climate action by SAR countries in the lead-up to the Glasgow Climate Conference of the Parties (CoP) in November 2021 and beyond. SSACD is the responsible unit for supporting SAR teams in achieving the climate co-benefits (CCB) targets, which are counted as the portion of project financing that delivers either mitigation or adaptation benefits to project beneficiaries.

SSACD seeks a highly qualified ETC (Climate Change Analyst) to provide cutting edge skills, and analytical and operational support. 

Duties and Accountabilities 

Lead the development of the SAR Climate Series: 

• Create and lead a work program to disseminate and debate on innovative and emerging climate change related topics and trends in South Asia. In addition, create a space for exchange of new ideas and thinking on how to increase climate change mitigation, adaptation and resilience-building activities in the region through client dialogues and Bank operations.

Operational support to relevant climate projects:

• Support operational tasks, including technical analyses, design of interventions and implementation support to clients, amongst others.

Support the implementation of the SAR Climate Action Plan:

• Support the operationalization post completion of the SAR Climate Action Plan, including preparing presentations for meetings with project teams and clients. This also includes analysis of relevant data to build compelling business cases, support different task teams to develop business plans and operationalization of priorities for countries and region.
• Facilitate communications and general outreach, including organizing workshops or events and drafting outreach documents and materials.

Support to GPs on climate co-benefits (CCB) assessment: 

• Analyze weekly pipeline data and estimate co-benefit ranges for un-assessed projects, identify projects with a potential for design improvement from a climate standpoint in co-ordination with Country Focal Points (FP). 
• Develop and populate the SSACD Knowledge Repository with relevant best practices and case studies. Talk to PG climate Focal Point’s to understand best practices on CCB support systems.
• Co-Lead quarterly trainings to Task teams on CCB. Co-ordinate with CCG on content based on a deep analysis of the historical (10 year) climate data of SAR. Co-ordinate with Focal Point’s on scheduling and any specific requirements that need to be addressed.

Support on Green House Gas (GHG) accounting and Shadow Price of Carbon (SPC):

• Experience in at least one of climate markets and finance, coastal resilience, sustainable cooling, decarbonization strategies or similar climate-related field.

• Desirable: Experience in handling climate co-benefits support and pipeline. Knowledge of the Climate Dashboard. Knowledge of the GHG methodology for GPURL and an understanding of the CURB tool along with an understanding of the Shadow Price of Carbon. 

• Experience with Microsoft Office suite and Tableau.

• Prior World Bank operational experience would be a plus.

• Strong analytical and organization skills

• Excellent English language skills and the ability to write and edit complex communications products in formats that have easy-to-follow structures, clear ideas, and logical, persuasive presentations.

• Strong conceptual and research/analytical skills, with the ability to think creatively and strategically, and rapidly analyze and integrate diverse information from varied sources into conclusions and easy-to-understand content.