International Forum: Energy for Sustainable Development
Capacity building for energy eficiency and access to cleaner energy in Central Asia and neighbouring regions.
The Third International Sustainable Energy Forum will be held at the Issyk Kul Lake in Kyrgyzstan on 12-14 September 2012. The Forum is organized jointly by the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). This Forum is a follow-up to the International Energy Efficiency Forums held in September 2010 in Astana, Kazakhstan and in September 2011 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
This year has been declared by the UN General Assembly the Year of Sustainable Energy for All. This is also a year of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). Energy sustainability, affordability and security are at the heart of the discussion about sustainable development. Energy efficiency in buildings has the potential to generate a large number of jobs and to engage local level stakeholders and the private sector. Government energy subsidies are often wasteful and need to be replaced with market-based pricing that captures environmental costs, combined with income supports to address negative distributional impacts that might result from the removal of subsidies. Priority should be given to improving energy efficiency from source to use, to reducing the carbon intensity of the energy sector, including through the promotion of renewable energy, and to enabling the cost-effective development and deployment of sustainable energy technology. The Third International Sustainable Energy Forum will contribute to these goals in a concrete and productive way.
The geographic focus of the Forum, similar to that of the two previous Forums, is on Central Asia and its neighbouring regions. However participation is expected not only from Europe and Asia but from other regions of the world as well. The Forum will include a high-level segment with participation of ministers and officials of the government bodies responsible for energy and sustainable development in the countries of Central Asia and neighbouring countries. Participants are expected to issue a joint statement on the critical role that international cooperation can play in promoting energy efficiency and access to cleaner energy.
The Forum will focus on the following topics:
a. Sustainable energy in Central Asia and neighbouring regions: current status, barriers and opportunities. Policy reforms and role of the Governments and public sector in creating favourable environment for sustainable energy promotion.
b. Energy efficiency (EE) in buildings and in housing sector: challenges, success cases and opportunities.
c. Investments in energy efficiency and cleaner energy: ways to finance EE and cleaner energy projects.
d. Role of the private sector in promoting cleaner energy options in Central Asia and neighbouring regions.
The format of the Forum will be a combination of plenary sessions, roundtables and workshops and will include a site visit. Keynote addresses and presentations will be delivered by Government and United Nations officials, energy efficiency experts, representatives of international financial institutions (IFIs), commercial banks, and investment companies. Discussion among representatives of private companies, project developers and government officials will take place at the roundtables.
Topics of the workshops will include: 1) Policies and legislation to promote energy efficiency and clean energy technologies in Central Asia; 2) Energy efficiency in buildings; 3) Foreign direct investments (FDI) in advanced fossil fuel technologies; and 4) Financing of advanced energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies in Central Asia.
In the framework of the Forum two other meetings will take place: 1) Subregional consultation meeting on preparation for Asia and the Pacific Energy Forum (APEF) 2013 and 2) SPECA (UN Special Programme for the Economies of Central Asia) Project Working Group on Water and Energy Resources.
Participation in the Forum is open to relevant experts from Governments, the private sector, financial institutions, international organizations, supporting institutions, as well as other stakeholders with an interest and experience in sustainable energy.
More information on the Forum, including the provisional agenda, will be available at the websites: http://www.unece.org/energyefficiency.html and http://www.feei.info.
