[sustran] World Bank Energy & Environment Strategy Consultation

[Paul Barter]

                    ANNOUNCING VIRTUAL CONSULTATION ON

       THE DRAFT WORLD BANK ENERGY and ENVIRONMENT  STRATEGY PAPER:

The World Bank is pleased to announce a virtual consultation on its draft
ENERGY and ENVIRONMENT STRATEGY PAPER, posted on the joint World Bank-GEEI
Web Site at http://www.geei.org/ -- a Web site for electronic consultations
between the World Bank and  stakeholders (governments, donors,
non-governmental organizations, energy project developers, and others)
concerning the environmental impacts of World Bank energy investments.

The World Bank Energy and Environment Strategy Process is a recent
initiative that aims to develop a better understanding of World Bank policy
and lending priorities at tne nexus of these two areas.  As a major step in
this process, The Environment Department and the Industry &  Energy
Department of the Bank have prepared a draft Energy and Environment
Strategy Paper. In its current version, the Strategy Paper as posted on the
Web, is a provisional draft and is subject to revisions based on input from
World Bank staff and management.  It is for discussion purposes only, and
is not to be cited.  After it is reviewed internally and approved by the
Bank's Board, the Paper will help shape country-specific assistance
programs.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN THE VIRTUAL CONSULTATION:
The World Bank strongly encourages stakeholders to review the draft
Strategy Paper and provide comments via the Web, by e-mail or by fax.  This
virtual consultation option has now replaced the earlier plans of
conducting a one-time consultation session in Washington, D.C.  Through the
virtual conference, the World Bank aims to engage as many participants as
possible from all sectors and throughout the world.

VIA THE WEB:  Participants in the virtual consultation can access the draft
Strategy Paper at http://www.geei.org/ and provide comments through the
conferencing area set up for this purpose.  All comments submitted will be
automatically posted in the conferencing area so that they are shared by
other participants.

The Paper can be downloaded in PDF, Word Perfect 5.1, Microsoft Word 6.0,
or text format.  Please read the on-screen directions to determine which
format might be most appropriate for you.

BY E-MAIL:  Internet users who do not have access to the Web, but have
e-mail, can still receive the Energy and Environment Strategy Paper and
participate in electronic discussions through an electronic list-serve.
The list-serve enables e-mail users to read and send messages in parallel
with Web users.  (Please see below for instructions on using the list-serve
option).

BY FAX:   Participants who have neither Web nor e-mail access, can request
hard copies of the paper to be mailed to them by sending a fax with their
name and mailing address to Ms. Grace Aguilar, Staff Assisstant, at (202)
522-3256.  Those participants may send their comments and feedback to the
attention of Ms. Aguilar at the same fax number.

POSTING COMMENTS IN OTHER LANGUAGES:  In addition to English, comments may
be submitted in French or Spanish, for those participants whose native
language is not English.  However, these comments will not be translated
into English by the administrators of the virtual consultation.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF COMMENTS:  Participants are kindly requested to
submit all their comments and feedback on the Energy and Environment
Strategy Paper by September 15, 1997 so that the Paper can be finalized in
time for the Kyoto Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC in early
December.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR USERS OF THE ELECTRONIC LIST-SERVE
AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE WEB:
To participate in the virtual consultation by e-mail,  you first need to
have a plain text copy of the report e-mailed to you.  To do this, you must
subscribe to the GEEI strategy list-serve.  (If you are already a member,
please skip to the next paragraph).  To subscribe to the list-serve, send a
message to  "majordomo at geei.org" with a single line in the message body
that reads: "subscribe strategy".  When you receive confirmation of your
acceptance by the list-serve (which should not take long), you may request
the Paper.

To request the Paper, send a message to "majordomo at geei.org", with a single
line in the message body that reads: "get strategy eespaper.txt".  You will
be e-mailed a plain text version of the Paper.  Please be advised that this
version contains no graphs or formatting(so tables will not be properly
aligned).

Once subscribed, you can participate in the virtual consultation by simply
sending your comments via e-mail to the lists at "strategy at geei.org".

When you no longer wish to be a part of the consultation, you can
un-subscribe by sending e-mail to "majordomo at geei.org", with a single line
in the message body, which reads: "unsubscribe strategy".

If you have difficulties with subscribing or un-subscribing to the
electronic list serves, please send an e-mail to "geei at iiec.org".