The District Energy in Cities Initiative has achieved great results during last year. More cities and countries are turning to district energy systems as a mean of unlocking decentralized energy, improving energy efficiency, introducing higher rates of renewables, and achieving greater circularity and resilience.
The Initiative is one of six accelerators of the SEforALL Energy Efficiency Hub, hosted by the UNEP DTU Partnership’s Copenhagen Centre on Energy Efficiency. The centre also acts as an outpost office of the Initiative.
This annual partners’ forum to be held in UN City in Copenhagen from 11th June provides partners, countries and cities a great opportunity to share progress, provide feedback, shape next year’s programme of work and global outreach strategy, and interact and match make with each other.
As well as the partners of the Initiative, special representatives of Argentina, Chile, China, Colombia, Egypt, India, Malaysia, Mongolia Serbia, Tunisia and Denmark also join the meetings in Copenhagen.
Creating large-scale positive change
Cities provide the population density, economic activity and intellectual capacity for change at scale. They contain over half of the world’s population, consume over two-thirds of the world’s energy and account for more than 70 per cent of CO2 emissions.
This 5th Annual Partners’ Forum is a four day event consisting of a training day for countries and cities, the full Annual Partners’ Meeting, the steering committee of countries and cities and study tours of district energy systems in Copenhagen and Malmø, Sweden.
On the first day of the meeting, several training sessions will take place to build capacity and share experiences regarding district energy implementation and potential.
The Copenhagen Centre on Energy Efficiency will among other things contribute to the training session on Monitoring, Verification and Reporting (MRV) as a crucial part of every district energy project.
On Wednesday 12th June, the second day of the forum, the opening session and keynotes from major partners and stakholders will give way to in-depth country updates, in which country and city representatives and project implementation partners present and discuss on the progress made, the challenges encountered and the future perspectives.
The entire second day of the forum will be live streamed here from 8.45 AM CET.
The District Energy in Cities Initiative is a multi-stakeholder partnership coordinated by UN Environment, with financial support from DANIDA, the Global Environment Facility, Italian Ministry of Environment and Protection of Land and Sea, and the Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program (K-CEP).
As one of six accelerators of the Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) Energy Efficiency Accelerator Platform, the Initiative aims to double the rate of energy efficiency improvements for heating and cooling in buildings by 2030, helping countries meet their climate and sustainable development targets.
