UNIDO strongly emphasizes capacity-building and information dissemination to foster the uptake of energy-efficiency practices and technologies in industry. UNIDO builds capacity at the institutional and market level tailoring activities and methodologies to the different target stakeholders. Special focus is given to the creation of cadres of highly skilled national experts in energy management and system optimization as one of the fundamental engines for the development of start-ups and the transformation of national industrial energy-efficiency markets. As an integral part of its knowledge mobilization and dissemination efforts, UNIDO organizes a number of global forum activities to bring together planners, experts, entrepreneurs, institutions and decision-makers on a common platform to raise awareness, exchange current concepts and ideas, and promote partnerships.

Training and technical assistance is an important part of the IAEA’s activities. The IAEA focuses on capacitybuilding for energy systems analysis and planning to help its member country identify the role of different technologies in meeting their future energy needs. The organization’s related activities include assistance to analyse opportunities and constraints for enhancing industrial energy efficiency, capacity-building for energy and electricity expansion planning, demand analysis for urban and rural areas, and financing of rural energy systems.

In cities, the potential for energy-efficiency gains is specifically high. Through its Slum Upgrading programme, UN-HABITAT works in the poorest urban areas to help build capacity and transfer technologies that replace charcoal and fuel wood with more sustainable and efficient sources of energy (e.g., through the development of biogas facilities, which can complement existing efforts to introduce fuelefficient and smoke-free stoves). In addition to increasing security, slum electrification programmes can offer ample co-benefits, like the positive impact of electric lighting on enabling people to work and study after their daytime activities.

Under the Strategic Programme on Promoting Sustainable Innovative Systems for Urban Transport, the Ghana urban transport project (US$ 90.35 million), a joint GEF/World Bank initiative, addresses capacity-building at institutional, management and regulatory levels to improve personal mobility in cities in Ghana. Project activities were initially designed to strengthen the capacity of ministries, local authorities, agencies and operators concerned with urban transport. As a result of improved traffic planning, a direct reduction of 240 kt CO2 is expected during the timeframe of the project.

Building on its successful experience in Europe, UNECE jointly worked with ESCWA, ESCAP, ECLAC and ECA to investigate different financing opportunities for global climate change mitigation. This led to the creation of the Global Energy Efficiency 21 project (GEE21), which was launched in December 2008 at UNECE Conference of the Parties COP-14 in Poznan, Poland. GEE21 is designed to develop a systematic exchange of capacity-building experience, policy reforms and investment project financing, with the goal of promoting self-financing energy-efficiency improvements that raise economic productivity, diminish fuel poverty and reduce environmental air pollution around the world. Considering that ownership of the programmes by beneficiary countries and communities is key to success, all programmes of the GEF include strong capacity-building and stakeholder awareness-raising components.

Under the GEF Promoting Energy Efficiency in Residential and Commercial Buildings programme, UNDP is engaged in the Energy-Efficiency Codes in Residential Buildings and Energy-Efficiency Improvement in Commercial and Hospital Buildings in Morocco project. The primary objective is to introduce mandatory minimum energy-efficiency performance requirements in the residential sector through an energy-efficient building code. A second objective is to institutionalize the adoption of efficiency standards and practices among Morocco’s commercial and hospital sectors. The project is helping the government of Morocco launch its national energy-efficiency initiative and stimulate public/private partnerships for integrating energy efficiency into public and private building construction/renovation programmes.

Recognizing the importance of energy in economic development—as well as the negative effects of inefficient energy use—the GEF has set a strategic objective of supporting projects that not only promote the transfer of energy-efficient technologies but also enable work with regulatory institutions on reforming policies and regulations in this vital energy sector. The aim is to promote enabling environments for energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions. The GEF has invested a substantial share of its resources in projects that remove market and other barriers to energy efficiency. Through its support, developing countries have introduced a combination of policies and regulatory frameworks, standards and labels for appliances, lighting, buildings and industrial equipment, and it has also helped to establish market-based approaches and financial instruments.

Integral to its efforts to promote low-carbon development, ESCAP supports national institutional and policy reforms related to energy efficiency though the development of long-term strategies and the implementation of integrated capacity-building, information exchange and regional cooperation initiatives.

The Strengthening Institutional Capacity to Support Energy Efficiency project takes stock of institutional capacities and policies to improve legislative and standard-setting measures in Central, South and South-East Asia. In 2009, ESCAP conducted a gap analysis and developed case studies of existing institutional mechanisms (including barriers and challenges) for promoting energy efficiency in the three subregions. The project will ultimately develop policy guidelines to address the barriers for effective institutional mechanisms based on findings from the previous year.

Within the scope of its Industrial Energy Efficiency programme UNIDO promotes and supports the establishment of favourable policy and regulatory environments for energy efficiency, providing policy advice and technical assistance to structure effective, comprehensive and country specific frameworks for industrial energy efficiency. These combine bestpractice policies, normative measures, fiscal and financial incentives, industry-wide education, intensive technical training and provision of tailored tools. UNIDO’s Industrial Energy Efficiency programme, worth US$ 200 million for the period 2010-2013, aims at establishing policy programmes and market conditions conducive to and supportive of the integration of energy management and energy efficiency technologies in industry daily business practices. With regard to energy efficiency, UNIDO works in close collaboration with the GEF, UNECE, UNECA, UNEP, and UNDP.

Within the project Support to the Development of an International Energy Management Standard for Industry, UNIDO has been working to help developing countries and economies in transition participate in the development of the new ISO 50001—Energy Management System Standard. Main elements of this support included raising awareness of policymakers, standard authorities and industry; supporting participation of emerging and developing economies; contributing to preliminary harmonization work; and channelling views of industry into the ISO process.

Under its Transport programme, UNEP calls for environmental considerations to be integrated with commercial and individual transport-related decisions. Its overall objectives are to facilitate a shift in transport systems and to implement approaches to mobility that are less disruptive to the environment. These include urban planning that promotes intermodality, the diffusion of clean technologies, the adoption of policies that help reduce environmental impacts, and the introduction of price signals that capture the full costs of different modes of transport.

UN DESA also provides advice and support in transportation planning and policymaking as they relate to goals of reducing emissions, increasing efficiency, and promoting sustainable modes of transport.

Working in close partnership with UNEP, the GEF, the World Bank and the governments of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and United Republic of Tanzania, UN-HABITAT’s Promoting Energy Efficiency in Buildings in East Africa programme (investment of US$ 9.25 million) helps reduce electricity consumption in buildings through demand management and the implementation of energyefficiency measures. To achieve this goal, UN-HABITAT is launching awareness campaigns, promoting sustainable urban energy policies, encouraging the development of green buildings through fiscal and financial incentives, giving regional awards to energy-efficient buildings, and developing regulations that incorporate energy efficiency into design codes and standards. Among other things, this programme will help reduce both the capital outlay required to increase generation capacity and the running costs of thermal generators, whether from national or individual power back-up systems.

The European Clean Energy Fund (ECEF) was officially launched in 2006 under the mandate of the Energy Efficiency 21 (EE21) programme. ECEF is a mezzanine and equity investment fund with investment capital of EUR 354 million. The targets for ECEF are clean energy projects in the European Union. Eligible projects are in the areas of renewable energy (wind, solar, biomass, geothermal), electricity (hydropower, cogeneration, combined cycle technology), fuel switching, clean coal, waste-to-energy and district heating. The UNECE Committee on Sustainable Energy has supported the creation of ECEF and views it as the prototype for future investment funds for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects in other countries of the UNECE Region. To date, over 80 per cent of the ECEF capital has been invested in a number of projects in wind energy, solar energy, biofuels and natural gas-related infrastructure. Investment projects were financed in France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. Some estimates show that implementation of projects under this fund could save at least 1,000,000 Mt of CO2 emissions. The experience of ECEF is being used to design a new investment fund for the 12 countries of South-Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe and Central Asia participating in the Financing Energy Efficiency Investments for Climate Change Mitigation (FEEI) project.

UNECE promotes the formation of an energy efficiency market in Eastern Europe so that costeffective investments can provide a self-financing method of reducing global GHG emissions. This includes the promotion of dedicated financial instruments such as the European Clean Energy Fund (ECEF), which was established by Swiss Re/Conning & Co.

Supported by the GEF and the IFC, the Hungary Energy Efficiency Co-Financing Programme (HEECP) was designed in two phases. HEECP I, a US$ 5 million pilot project, generated considerable interest in the energy-efficiency market among Hungarian financial institutions by providing guarantees and technical assistance to support the financing of energy efficiency-related projects including, but not limited to, investments in efficient lighting, building and district heating, boiler and building control systems, motors, and industrial process improvements. HEECP II builds on these accomplishments, aiming to significantly expand co-financing. IFC, GEF, and remaining HEECP I funding was combined to provide a US$ 16 million guarantee facility to local financial institutions for building a far-reaching pool of funds to finance energy-efficiency projects in the country. Expansion of the guarantee programme is expected to facilitate up to US$ 76 million in new energy-efficiency financing. In addition, technical assistance was provided to help financial institutions, energy service companies and end users who were planning investments to evaluate energy-efficiency projects. This is expected to result in secondary benefits not directly related to capital financing by enhancing local capacity for energy-efficiency project financing and technical competence.

At the World Bank, energy-efficiency lending has grown almost 20-fold since UN-Energy’s establishment, from US$ 0.1 billion in 2004 to US$ 1.7 billion in 2009. As mentioned in the previous renewable energy chapter, the Clean Technology Fund aims to finance transformational actions by providing positive incentives for the demonstration of lowcarbon development technologies and the mitigation of GHG emissions though public and private-sector investments. It combines three major components: the promotion of highly efficient technologies to reduce carbon intensity in the power sector (including renewable energy); efficiency and modal shifts in the transport sector; and energy efficiency in buildings, industry and agriculture.

In Nigeria, the US$ 200 million Electricity and Gas Improvement project—financed by the World Bank and supported by a US$ 400 million partial risk guarantee issued by the World Bank—ensures the availability and reliability of gas supply to increase power generation in existing public-sector power plants. It also improves the power network’s capacity and efficiency to reliably transmit and distribute electricity to consumers, thereby demonstrating the potential for emissions reductions in both production and distribution of electricity.

The GEF is one of the public sector’s largest contributors of energy-efficiency funding, with direct investments of US$ 850 million in more than 90 developing and transition countries and an additional US$ 5.9 billion in co-financing over the past 18 years. Catalysing financing through the creation of sustainable energy programmes—particularly renewable energy and energy-efficiency initiatives—is a major aspect of UNDP’s work. GEF programme grants represent 80 per cent of UNDP’s total energyrelated portfolio in this area. Geographically, much of the activities are in the middle-income and emerging economies. UNDP is working with developing countries and economies in transition to explore carbon-financing opportunities that could help accelerate the transition to sustainable, low-carbon energy systems.

At the UNFCCC, TT:CLEAR (a technology information clearing house) includes an inventory of environmentally friendly technologies and technology development and transfer projects, as well as information on financing technology development and transfer.9 TT:CLEAR also provides access to information on technology needs identified by developing countries, and supports a pilot network of national and regional technology information centres. The objective is to improve the flow of, access to and quality of information related to the development and transfer of environmentally sound technologies that help improve access to energy globally.

The use of inefficient cooking equipment can lead to serious health problems in developing countries. WHO is assessing the relationship between disease and household energy use, in particular diseases resulting from household air pollution caused by open fires for cooking. In this regard, WHO gathers and disseminates information on the use of household energy and on effective approaches to improving worldwide access to clean, efficient household energy.

The GEF/UNEP Energy Management and Performance Related Energy Savings Scheme (EMPRESS) supports energyefficiency efforts in Eastern and Central Europe. By sharing information and expertise, the project helps establish specialized energy service companies (ESCOs) that perform energy monitoring and targeting (M&T;) for industrial and commercial clients. Under the project, M&T; is introduced through ESCOs that accept the majority of the capital risk for energy-efficiency investments in exchange for a share of the positive cash flow accruing from the subsequent energy savings. EMPRESS has three main objectives: creating a market for M&T; energy management services; achieving end-user energy-efficiency improvement and GHG reductions; and opening doors to M&T; services worldwide.

The GEF is the largest public-sector funding source supporting the transfer of environmentally sound technologies (ESTs) to developing countries, with more than 50 ESTs being supported by the GEF over the years. Out of those, more than one-third are energy-efficiency technologies covering lighting, appliances, heating systems, building design and construction materials, power and heat generation and distribution, and industrial applications. The Strategic Programme on Promoting Energy Efficiency in the Industrial Sector includes the deployment and diffusion of energy-efficient technologies and practices in industrial production and manufacturing processes, and has evolved into sector-specific technology transfer programmes focusing on GHGintensive industries.

Energy efficiency in industry can contribute considerably to decoupling economic growth from environmental impact by reducing industrial energy intensity and related GHG emissions. As the organization dedicated to industrial development, UNIDO partners with the GEF on its Industrial Energy Efficiency programme, which aims to enable industry to develop and implement energy-efficiency projects and comply with energy-management standards. Taking stock of different countries key manufacturing sectors and development priorities, the UNIDO programme includes pilot and demonstration projects as well as technology transfer activities. UNEP’s Energy Efficiency programme involves various facets of technology research, development, transfer and commercialization, as well as the promotion of new and innovative energy-efficiency methodologies and techniques. UNEP works with a broad spectrum of partners in these efforts including industry associations, NGOs, financial institutions and the private sector.

Starting in the 1950s, Township and Village Enterprises (TVEs) were established in China as rural, collective entities to provide jobs for of the great numbers of surplus rural labourers, and to make essential local products available at lower costs. TVEs have now been largely privatized to their former managers and still primarily sell their products in local markets. The Energy Conservation and GHG Emissions Reduction in Chinese TVEs project (US$ 18.5 million including co-financing) was financed by the GEF and executed by UNIDO in cooperation with the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture. It focused on reducing GHG emissions in China’s brick, cement, metal casting and coking TVE sectors. This project was designed to remove key market, policy, technology, management and financial barriers and induce a transformation that would support the development and uptake of energy-efficient technologies and products in these TVE sectors.

The transfer of environmentally sound technologies is embodied in the very fabric of UNFCCC. Article 4, paragraph 5 of the Convention commits developed countries to “take all practicable steps to promote, facilitate and finance, as appropriate, the transfer of, or access to, environmentally sound technologies and know-how to other Parties, particularly developing country Parties, to enable them to implement the provisions of the Convention.”