The Energy Efficiency portfolio comprises of diverse projects in the areas Lighting and Appliances, and Buildings.
The Energy Efficient projects in lighting and appliances aim at removing barriers, creating enabling environments and transforming national markets as a channel of combating climate change. With the support of the GEF UNEP Climate Change Mitigation team, the national ministries are able to design projects that meet these objectives through:
- Regulatory mechanisms, including Minimum Energy Performance Standards for products
- Drafting and endorsing policies for high efficiency technology deployment
- Strengthening monitoring, verification and enforcement (MVE) systems for energy efficient product uptake
- Establishing environmentally sound management structures of energy efficient products
UNEP developed the global En.lighten and United for Efficiency initiatives to provide countries that are transitioning to efficient lighting and appliances with technical support to develop national standards for efficiency as well as raise awareness to support rapid uptake of the technologies at the national levels.
The portfolio is also supporting countries scale-up energy efficiency measures through GEF investments in the Building Sector and they are achieving this through projects that are designed to:
- Develop policies and standards that include building codes, labelling and certification schemes
- Designing energy efficient buildings to pilot as a demonstration for replication
- Retrofitting existing buildings to improve their energy efficiency
UNEP’s District Energy in Cities and Building Efficiency Accelerator initiatives provide additional technical support to the countries to address market and policy gaps and barriers.
The GEF 8 funding cycle will continue to invest in energy efficiency projects under its Pillar I that will accelerate the efficient use of energy and materials.
