Since it was founded in
1998, the United Nations Foundation has committed
nearly $50 million to more than 60 projects promoting
renewable energy and energy efficiency. Several
of these initiatives are described below.
Capacity-building
for the Clean Development Mechanism
A key component of the Kyoto Protocol, the Clean
Development Mechanism (CDM), enables developed
countries to meet a portion of their emission-reduction
obligations by implementing emission reduction
projects in developing countries. As a conduit
for new foreign investment and technology transfer,
the CDM has the potential to contribute to sustainable
development. For host countries to implement CDM
activities efficiently, however, there is a critical
need for capacity development at the human, institutional,
and system-wide levels. This project engages national
private-sector entrepreneurs in Africa, Asia and
Latin America in learning-by-doing CDM capacity
development; assists appropriate government ministries
in creating a sound CDM governance system; and
encourages south-south technology, information,
and knowledge sharing with respect to the CDM.
China Village Biomass
Co-generation
UNF has supported the efforts of the UN
Development Programme (UNDP) and local authorities
to launch a sustainable village-level combined
heat and power biomass gasification plant in Jilin
Province based on the modernized use of biomass
(agricultural residues from corn in this case).
The project seeks to demonstrate a viable business
model and commercialization strategy to promote
project replication on a wider scale in rural
China. The project funded a cogeneration facility
which obtained a power purchase agreement with
the local electric utility to sell surplus power
to the grid, producing additional revenue and
ensuring the project’s economic sustainability.
China
Motor System Energy Conservation Program
This project, implemented by the UN
Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO),
seeks to promote improvements in motor designs
and operating practices in China’s Shanghai
and Shandong provinces in order to reduce energy
consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally,
the project aims to lay the groundwork for a national
efficient motors program in China that would be
a replicable model for other developing countries.
Collaborating
Label and Appliance Standards Program (CLASP)
Worldwide, energy use for appliances, lighting,
and other in-building applications accounts for
one third of total energy consumption and over
one quarter of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions.
Without focused efforts to reduce the energy consumption
by appliances and equipment, electricity demand
will continue to outstrip supply in the developing
world. Energy standards and labeling programs
can help meet this rising demand in an environmentally-friendly
manner. CLASP, which is being implemented by the
UN
Department of Economic and Social Affairs
(UNDESA) and the UN
Development Programme (UNDP), supports energy
efficiency standards and labeling programs in
China, India, Brazil, and South Africa. In China
alone, CLASP’s voluntary labels will save
an estimated 20,000 GWh over the next 10 years,
avoiding almost seven million tons of carbon dioxide
emissions.
Energy
Efficiency Investment Development for Climate
Change Mitigation
This UNF-supported UN
Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) project
assists governments and financial institutions
in developing infrastructure and capacity for
cost-effective energy efficiency projects in Eastern
European and CIS countries. It also establishes
a sustainable, market-based model to finance energy
efficiency and renewable energy investments with
significant environmental, economic, and social
benefits. A new project has been approved to extend
and accelerate this one.
Financial
Intermediation Mechanisms for Energy Efficiency
Projects in Brazil, China and India
This UN
Environment Programme/World
Bank program seeks to achieve major increases
in energy efficiency investments by domestic financial
sectors in Brazil, China and India by fostering
the development of energy efficiency investment
project packaging capacity, both in existing financial
institutions and through the development of new
entities. The program includes innovative multiple
international cross-country exchange activities
to allow practitioners from each of the three
countries to learn from each other and to jointly
tackle the practical problems that each face in
overcoming barriers to increased efficiency investment.
Footprint Neutral
This project will provide seed capital to help
the UN
Development Programme (UNDP) create a new
mechanism for funding greenhouse gas reductions
and offsets. Footprint Neutral will provide a
voluntary market for companies to invest in alternative
energy projects by identifying and offsetting
their carbon emissions. Footprint Neutral is set
to begin in 2005.
Global
Sustainable Energy Islands Initiative
This three year initiative seeks to accelerate
the transition of small island nations toward
cleaner and more sustainable energy use. Specifically,
the project which the UN
Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO)
began in 2004 will support the further development
and implementation of national sustainable energy
plans in Grenada, St. Lucia and Dominica by demonstrating
market-based approaches to the delivery of clean
energy services. Working with governments, the
private sector, the investment community and other
stakeholders in the Caribbean region, the project
partners will develop a portfolio of priority
investment projects that can increase clean energy
supplies and services while reducing petroleum
demand in the islands. The project will also facilitate
national consultations to develop sustainable
energy plans for at least six additional island
nations in the Pacific and elsewhere.
Global Village Energy
Partnership (GVEP)
To increase energy access and promote socio-economic
development in poverty-laden regions, the UN Foundation
pledged $300,000 to the Global
Village Energy Partnership (GVEP), a joint
initiative of United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the
World
Bank. By developing innovative funding mechanisms,
the GVEP program helps small and medium-sized
enterprises establish clean energy projects in
developing countries. GVEP targets Brazil, India,
and Tanzania and will: help leverage private sector
investment, develop effective consumer credit
approaches that address barriers to rural energy
financing, design pre-investment facilities to
help entrepreneurs defray high up-front costs
for clean energy projects, and develop training
programs for financial institutions serving clients
in rural areas.
India
Solar Credit Facility
The aim of this UN
Environment Programme-led effort is to accelerate
the market for financing solar home systems in
southern India by helping two of India’s
largest commercial banks, Canara Bank and Syndicate
Bank, develop lending portfolios specifically
targeted at financing solar home systems (SHS).
With the support of the UN Foundation and the
Shell Foundation, the project provides an interest
rate subsidy to lower the cost of SHS financing
for consumers. This model has proven so successful
that UNEP is hoping to expand the program to other
parts of the country and to other sources of energy
such as biogas.
Renewable Energy
Enterprise Development (REED)
The UN Foundation and the UN
Environment Programme (UNEP) have undertaken
an $8.6 million effort to help local entrepreneurs
create clean energy enterprises in Brazil, China
and five African countries that deliver clean,
affordable energy services to the rural and peri-urban
poor. The REED
initiative—with projects in Africa, Brazil, and China—is based on an enterprise development
model pioneered by E&Co,
a non-profit clean energy investor and is being
advanced at the country level in partnership with
a diverse group of local NGO’s. The REED
approach combines small amounts of start-up capital
with extensive enterprise development services
to help entrepreneurs create viable energy service
enterprises. These energy service companies are
offering a range of services and products including
energy efficient cookstoves, solar dryers for
food preservation, solar irrigation systems, wind
pump repair services, the supply and service of
solar home systems, LPG retail services, environmentally
friendly charcoal production, etc. To date, REED
has facilitated investments in approximately 25
energy enterprises in Africa and 10 in Brazil.
The REED programme in China will start up in 2005.
Solar
Water Heating in China
This initiative, which is led by the UN
Department of Economic and Social Affairs
(UNDESA), promotes solar thermal technology as
an alternative to coal combustion for the production
of hot water in China’s residential sector,
expanding the use of solar energy for heating
water by integrating high-quality solar technology
into attractive and cost-effective building designs.
The project focuses on strengthening capacity
within the building industry for integration of
solar water heating technology into new residential
construction. It also conducts consumer outreach
on the benefits of solar technology and explores
opportunities for creating financial incentives
for real estate developers and home buyers to
use solar systems.
Sustainable Energy
Finance Initiative (SEFI) SEFI
is a joint initiative of UNEP’s
Energy Unit, UNEP
Finance Initiative and BASE
(Basel Agency for Sustainable Energy) that seeks
to increase private sector investments in sustainable
energy applications by working with financiers
to develop the tools, support, and networks to
drive financial innovation and scale-up lending
to the sustainable energy market. It works to
catalyze public-private alliances with mainstream
financiers in order to lower the barriers to sustainable
energy investment. On 1-2 June 2004, the SEFI
event “Creating the Climate for Change,”
which UNF co-sponsored, brought together members
of the finance community, government officials,
and project developers from 37 countries in Bonn.
Sustainable
Renewable Energy Markets in Rural Regions of Brazil
The United Nations Foundation is investing in
a groundbreaking project in four rural areas in
Mato Grosso State in Brazil that aims to establish
sustainable markets for renewable energy technologies
and services. This UN
Development Programme-implemented project
stimulates the local private sector by helping
to organize and inform potential market participants
– who are primarily low-income, dispersed
farmers without access to clean modern energy,
information, and financing – of renewable
energy options and applications, with particular
emphasis on productive uses and value-added products
and services, and other complementary opportunities
that these options present to secure economic
and financial viability.
