|
|
Service Module 6: Sustainable Energy and Climate Change 可持续能源与气候变化 Context Industrial energy is essential to economic and social development and to improving the quality of life. Indeed, the availability of affordable and sustainable energy to all people is critical to the achievement of the MDGs, and its contributions can help to meet the targets in various ways. In particular, energy is a prerequisite for poverty alleviation, as targeted in MDG 1, since it enables income-generating activities and the establishment of micro-enterprises. Similarly, energy helps to alleviate hunger and meet most of the other social and welfare-related MDGs by providing the light and power that the achievement of these goals critically depends on. Accessibility to reliable and affordable energy is very unevenly distributed, however, both between countries and within countries. Many developing countries - in particular LDCs - and countries with economies in transition face the urgent need to provide adequate, reliable and affordable energy services, especially electricity, to a total of some two billion people mainly in rural areas. The issue of "energy for the poor" is consequently becoming one of the principal issues in the global debate on energy. On the other hand, the production, generation, distribution and use of energy are sources of global pollution and waste, not least because they release substantial amounts of greenhouse gas (GHG) pollutants. In this sense also, energy impinges on the MDGs, which call for environmental sustainability. As the predicted population growth in the developing world materializes, the pressure on local environments to supply the required energy sources will increase considerably, as will the amount of GHGs released. How the international community and governments respond to these issues will be of vital importance if society is to have a sustainable future. The importance of carbon dioxide emissions as an environmental issue of international concern has grown substantially since 1992, when the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted because of increasing concern over rising atmospheric concentrations of GHGs and their possible adverse effects on the global climate system. The UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol call for an enhancement of energy efficiency and an increase in the production and use of new and renewable energy, as well as measures to limit or reduce emissions of GHGs. Global climate change mitigation depends greatly on the increased use of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies in all countries. Improvements in industrial energy efficiency contribute to enhanced productivity and reliability. Training programmes in energy efficiency contribute to skills and technology diffusion. The multilateral funding mechanism of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and its partner agencies and regional development banks formulate, finance and implement projects that reflect the GEF's climate change mitigation strategies aimed at enabling developing countries and economies in transition to meet both national development and global climate change goals. Following the adoption of Resolution GC.8/Res.2 by the Eighth General Conference of UNIDO - which was reaffirmed by the twenty-third session of the Industrial Development Board - UNIDO was accorded the status of executing agency with expanded opportunities with the GEF in November 2000. The international efforts and measures required to address successfully such energy-related issues as climate change and the provision of affordable modern energy services in developing countries, particularly in rural areas, are extremely challenging in a number of ways. However, a large number of international bodies, United Nations agencies, governments, private companies, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are focusing their attention on energy issues. UNIDO is one of the lead agencies taking up the energy challenge, and its energy-related services include:
The services provided by this service module reinforce those provided by several other service modules, including Service Module 2 (Investment and Technology Promotion), Service Module 4 (Private Sector Development), Service Module 5 (Agro-industries) and Service Module 8 (Environmental Management). There is a particularly strong synergetic linkage between the service providing rural energy for productive use and the rural and women entrepreneurship development service of Service Module 4, while renewable energy applications and energy efficiency services are linked especially closely to the cleaner and sustainable production service of Service Module 8. Projects related to the Cleaner Development Mechanism (CDM) and Joint Implementation (JI) of the Kyoto Protocol are linked, via their investment requirements, to Service Module 2.
(a) Rural energy for productive use with emphasis on renewable energy Given the many links between the availability of sustainable energy and the MDGs as outlined above, considerable investments and technical assistance programmes are required in this field if the global community really means to attain the goals set by the Millennium Declaration. UNIDO considers that an effective approach to reduce and/or remove the obstacles that hinder access to affordable and sustainable energy in rural areas would have to contain three essential elements: facilitation of access; creation of employment; and technology transfer. This, it is believed, could best be done through the effective "packaging" of a set of well-structured and complementary activities or services. Building on its experience in this field, UNIDO has developed a rural energy programme aimed at:
The beneficiaries of the programme would be the rural poor who would gain access to affordable and reliable energy services both to meet their basic needs (cooking, heating and lighting) and for income generating activities. It is evident that the approach followed will vary greatly between countries and regions, since the causes for the lack of access to modern energy and the available opportunities differ greatly from one country or region to another. Individual tailor-made packages will have to be designed for different situations. This caveat notwithstanding, the overall approach for formulating a programme at the country level consists of four distinct stages: Stage 1: Determination of suitable pilot locations Stage 2: Identification of "productive uses" of energy Stage 3: Development of a comprehensive programme ("package")
Stage 4: Implementation of the comprehensive programme and design of mechanisms for replication The development of such energy resources should be accompanied by the establishment of appropriate support networks for rural (micro and small) enterprise development, as well as a solid system for the provision of repair and maintenance services. For this purpose, practical and effective methodologies and tools have been developed by UNIDO with a view to tailoring the business and technical skill development programmes to fit to the needs and the absorption capacity of the entrepreneurs and the support institutions. With the improved accessibility of energy resources, these services will help entrepreneurs to improve their production processes and management techniques, and increase their prospects for starting up, expanding and diversifying enterprises. UNIDO carries out activities bringing stakeholders together to discuss, recommend solutions, and take action to help to reduce poverty through the provision of energy services in the least developed regions. In this connection meetings are being prepared to address issues such as: "Energy and NEPAD/Africa", "Micro- mini-hydro power for rural development" and "Biomass gasification and South-South cooperation." UNIDO actively takes part in the follow-up activities - including partnerships
- of the World Summit on Sustainable Development ( Over recent years, energy issues, including industrial energy consumption, have evolved from a mainly financial and developmental nature into a more global environmental concern with the prospect of climate change. In this context, the issue of promoting the efficient usage of energy, including energy-saving technologies, has gained growing international importance. Based on the well-documented understanding that the barriers to the accelerated introduction of energy efficient technologies and measures in industry include policy, financial and technical barriers, UNIDO has developed approaches to address these groups of barriers at both the national and industrial plant levels (top-down and bottom-up). Specific activities undertaken in the context of this service include:
UNIDO's approach to industrial energy efficiency is being implemented in a number of projects. For example, within the industrial motor systems project in China, several plants have already implemented the recommendations arising from UNIDO's system assessments. The case studies emerging from UNIDO's work serve to demonstrate how efficient industrial energy systems also contribute to plant productivity and reliability. Also in China, a GEF financed project aims at improving the energy efficiency of four energy-intensive sectors (cement, brick-making, metal casting and coking) of the Town and Village Enterprises (TVEs) by removing policy, technical and financial barriers. (c) Climate change Following the successful agreements in Bonn and Marrakech, rules and procedures have been formulated governing the CDM and JI measures of the Kyoto Protocol, including simplified modalities for small-scale CDM projects. The Eighth Conference of the Parties (COP8) in October 2002 reviewed the decisions and guidelines of the CDM Executive Board regarding operational entities, accreditation standards, modalities and procedures for small-scale CDM and other key operational issues pertaining to the CDM. With the CDM Executive Board having been established and operating with the help of its three panels on methodologies, accreditation and small-scale CDM, a sufficient regulatory and methodological structure has been put in place to support the uptake of CDM projects. Thus, it is reasonable to expect that there will be a significant increase in CDM project activities in the near future. The carbon trading market is also continuing to evolve rapidly despite setbacks and delays in the entry into force of the Protocol, which itself looks fairly promising after the Russian Federation reconfirmed its intention to strengthen its cooperation on the approval of the Kyoto protocol, and several EU countries have signalled their readiness to proceed with ratification. UNIDO's work supporting the implementation of the Kyoto mechanisms has focused on:
UNIDO also organizes meetings, such as a recent one on the subject of "East European and CIS countries and CDM", and participates in a wide variety of international and national meetings. At these fora, UNIDO presents its energy programme and strengthens its international links and cooperation. |
 |
