UNEP DTU Partnership will be partnering with Kenya to make sure the country achieves its ambitious targets for energy efficiency.
Today in Nairobi a Collaboration agreement to accelerate energy efficiency actions in Kenya between UNEP DTU Partnership’s Copenhagen Centre on Energy Efficiency and Ministry of Energy, Kenya was signed, marking the beginning of a far-reaching and detailed five-year agreement.
The collaboration will help Kenya with all aspects of energy efficiency strategy development, including a focus on buildings, lighting and industry, as well as facilitating the creation of a world class energy efficiency agency.
Senior Strategic Advisor for the Copenhagen Centre on Energy Efficiency, Mark Lister, has been part of developing the agreement:
“Our collaboration with the Kenyan Government really gives UNEP DTU Partnership and the Copenhagen Centre on Energy Efficiency a great opportunity to exercise all the aspects of assistance to governments that we are good at.
From research and analysis into the baseline of energy efficiency performance, helping the Ministry to learn from international best practice, to recommending what the opportunities might be for delivering on international commitments, and to devise business models for delivery and attracting finance,” he says.
Kenya has been working to integrate energy efficiency efforts in broader greenhouse gas reduction strategies and the country’s Nationally Determined Contributions to the Paris Agreement. Additionally its overarching government objectives focus on affordable housing, manufacturing competitiveness, universal healthcare and food security, all of which can be enhanced by improved energy efficiency
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These efforts will form the basis of the collaboration between the Ministry of Energy and UNEP DTU Partnership, and help to frame a 5-year energy efficiency strategy in appropriate, realistic and achievable actions. The Copenhagen Centre on Energy Efficiency will perform situation analyses for key energy using sectors, develop recommendations for action based on opportunities and international experience. As well as help the Ministry to engage its stakeholders and communicate the benefits of energy efficiency through the strategy development process.
“It is something that we really look forward to working on with the Kenyan Ministry of Energy in the months and years to come,” Mark Lister adds.
Working towards Sustainable Energy for All
The Copenhagen Centre on Energy Efficiency is the global thematic hub for energy efficiency of the Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) initiative. The SEforALL initiative is an international organization that works to improve energy access, energy efficiency and contribution of renewable energy to the energy mix.
Kenya opted into the SEforALL initiative in 2012 and UNEP DTU Partnership and the Copenhagen Centre on Energy Efficiency recognises the ambitious energy access, energy efficiency and renewable targets the Kenyan Government has set.
The collaboration between UNEP DTU Partnership and the Kenyan Ministry of Energy will aim at achieving the following objectives:
1. To support the implementation of energy efficiency actions identified in the Kenyan SEforALL Action Agenda and Investment Prospectus.
2. To generate projects that will translate the SEforALL Action Agenda and Investment Prospectus into implementable actions and measures on the ground.
3. Facilitate the energy efficiency sector to come up with proper policies and strategies to advance energy efficiency in Kenya.
The collaboration will focus on a number of areas that require support in order to enhance the Ministry of Energy’s capacity to regulate, plan, implement, monitor and evaluate the SEforALL agenda:
• Efficient lighting
• Energy efficiency in buildings
• Energy efficiency for industry
• Energy Efficiency Policy framework and Strategy
• Creation of a world class Energy Efficiency Agency
The activities in this collaboration will include needs analysis, resource mobilisation and project development, planning, resource allocation, implementation and assistance with monitoring and evaluation.
Working with stakeholders to create wide impact
UNEP DTU Partnership and the Copenhagen Centre on Energy Efficiency will be working with a wide range of stakeholders to try to make the energy efficiency goals of the Kenyan government a reality for all Kenyans.
The Copenhagen Centre on Energy Efficiency will build partnerships with the Ministry of Energy, key stakeholders and partners working with energy efficiency in the private sector.
Part of the projected outcomes of the collaboration agreement signed today is also to facilitate and leverage finance from major international organisations.
Senior Advisor from UNEP DTU Partnership Ksenia Petrichenko, who will be working closely with this project over the coming years explains how this work can create positive impact beyond access to energy:
“Improving energy efficiency will help improve energy access in Kenya, which underpins a range of development objectives including food security, affordable housing, manufacturing and affordable healthcare.”
Through freeing up available energy resources, energy efficiency can improve energy access and livelihoods for all Kenyans across all of these objectives, she explains.
“Our work with the Ministry to develop an energy efficiency strategy will focus on all the benefits that energy efficiency can bring, as well as practical measures that can be developed in conjunction with the private sector to have a real impact in the target sectors.”
