Activities

• ACAD
  Through the Africa Carbon Asset Development (ACAD) Facility, UNEP will partner with African financial institutions and local entrepreneur project developers to enhance their awareness and expertise to identify and develop carbon finance opportunities

• AREED II
  UNEP's Rural Energy Enterprise Development Programme is an initiative offering enterprise development services and start-up financing to 'clean energy' enterprises. In a second phase of the activities in Africa (AREED), attention will be given to projects involving biofuels

• Brazil, China, and India- Lending for Energy Efficiency
  UNEP and the UNEP Risoe Centre on Energy and Environment have started an effort with the World Bank's Energy Efficiency and Environment Thematic Group to conduct in country investigations and preparation of a proposal for a larger project that would help the countries overcome barriers hindering loans for energy efficiency
  
  
• Bringing Forest Carbon Projects to the Market
  A new guidebook for forest project developers and investors. This publication seeks to provide insight on the issues that has thus far limited the forest carbon market, promoting much needed awareness of the forestry sector.

• CASCADe
  The CASCADe programme enhances African expertise to generate carbon credits from the Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Uses (AFOLU) sector and bioenergy activities
  
  
• CF- Promoting Sustainable Energy Services in Africa (CF-SEA)
  Teams have been working with host government agencies, banks and project sponsors to develop an initial pipeline of CDM investment opportunities some of which the World Bank hopes to finance through its Community Development Carbon Fund
  

• Collaboration with Daimler, WWF, and the Ministry of Agriculture of Baden Wuertemberg
  Result of this cooperation is a background document that reviews existing certification systems linked to biomass certification, compiles initiatives by the international community and country policies on biofuels, and gives an indication on requirements of different crops
  
  
• Developing Financial Intermediation Mechanisms for Energy-Efficiency Projects in Brazil, China and India
  UNEP and the UNEP Risoe Centre on Energy and Environment have started an effort with the World Bank's Energy Efficiency and Environment Thematic Group to conduct in country investigations and preparation of a proposal for a larger project that would help the countries overcome barriers hindering loans for energy efficiency.
  
  
• Due Diligence Guidelines
  The Due Diligence Guidelines are a practical tool for financiers and investors to check and mitigate their risk of investments in the renewable energy sector

• Energy Management and Performance Related Energy Savings Scheme (EMPRESS)
  EMPRESS supports energy efficiency efforts in Eastern and Central Europe. The project helps to establish specialised energy service companies (ESCOs) that provide Monitoring and Targeting (M&T) energy services to industrial and commercial clients

• GBEP
  GBEP is an initiative by the G8 +5 (Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa) taken at the 2005 Gleneagles Summit, to support wider, cost effective, biomass and biofuels deployment, particularly in developing countries
  
  
• Global Initiative on Promoting Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems
  A number of UNEP funded projects through the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) are currently being implemented by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP). These global projects are mainly focused on providing technical assistance on planning, design and implementation of BRT systems in Tanzania, Colombia and Indonesia. In addition, non-motorized transport e.g pedestrian pathways and cycling networks are also integrated in the projects. A comprehensive Planning Guide on BRT is also available
  
  
• Indian Solar PV Loan Programme
  The aim of this effort is to help Canara bank and Syndicate bank develop lending portfolios specifically targeted at financing solar home systems (SHS)
  
  
• International Resource Panel
  This panel on the sustainable use of natural resources has set up a working group on biofuels. Amongst other issues, the working group will look at options of efficient use of resources, including an assessment of 'stationary use versus use of biofuels for transport'.
  
  
• Local Biofuel Production for Use in Telecommunication Applications
  Feasibility Study with Diligent and Ericsson to explore options how demand for new services that require energy to operate could spur the Bioenergy market
  
  
• Mapping
  Mapping is an important tool to help solid bioenergy planning by identifying areas that should be exempt from bioenergy development because of their high conservation value in terms of biodiversity or in terms of CO2 storage capacity ,and areas that would be suitable for bioenergy development
  
  
• Network for Environmentally Sustainable Transport in Latin America and the Carribean (NESTLAC)
  It was established in 2004 with initial funding from the GEF as there was and is still a strong demand for sustainable transport planning in the region. The network is managed and coordinated by UNEP Risoe Centre ( URC)
  
  
• North African MEDREP SHW Loan Programmes
  The key objectives of MedREP are to investigate different options for increasing finance flows to renewable energy companies and projects in target countries, and to help structure various support mechanisms that help lenders and investors scale up financing to this clean energy sector
  
  
• Promoting Industrial Energy Efficiency through a Cleaner Production Framework (CP-EE Project)
  The overall objective of this project is to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases by identifying and carrying out Energy Efficiency (EE) improvements as an integral part of Cleaner Production (CP) assessments in industrial enterprises in China, Vietnam, India, Hungary, The Czech Republic, Slovakia
  
  
• Promoting Sustainable Transport in Latin America
  Promotes sustainable transport options through individual demonstration projects in Guatemala City, Panama City and Concepción city. The project focuses on three specific aspects of transport sustainability: Bus Rapid Transit (BRT),Bus Regulation and Planning (BRP) and Non-motorized Transport (NMT)
  
  
• Promoting vehicles energy efficiency
  UNEP has been promoting fuel economy improvement efforts working with a number of public and private sector partners in raising awareness and enhance the understanding of low cost technology options, the policy options available and their likely impacts. In support from Michelin, UNEP and the International Energy Agency have jointly organized two workshops during their annual Challenge Bibendum events. In addition, a component approach currently being implemented is the Promotion of environmentally friendly vehicle air conditioning with a focus CO2 based system and energy efficiency improvement features
  
  
• RE/EE Investment Advisory Facility (IAF)
  The IAF provides banks and financiers with targeted expertise and support to evaluate proposals in the sustainable energy sector and to help these institutions develop the skills to evaluate such projects independently
  
  
• RE Export Credit Working Group
  Provides substantial information on how private banks and insurers assess environmental risk within their business operations
  
  
• RE Risk Management Instruments
  The ultimate goal of the effort is to bring about the faster and more systematic deployment of RE by supporting and positively influencing the development of markets for RE risk management instruments/ approaches
  
  
• Resource Panel
  The Resource Panel provides independent scientific assessment of the environmental impacts due to the use of resources over the full life cycle, and advise governments and organisations on ways to reduce these impacts in a number of areas, including biofuels
  
  
• Roundtable on Bioenergy Enterprise
  The Roundtable consists of a network of centers of excellence that will pull together, analyse and develop materials that will ultimately help small farmers to engage in Bioenergy enterprise development (plant and technological requirements, challenges in the production and conversion phases and ways to address them; business models and ways to help smallholders to get organised, including taking into account environmental and social co-benefits into classical cost-benefit analyses; barriers to Bioenergy enterprise development and ways to overcome them (financial, agronomical and technological, and political)
  
  
• Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels
  The RSB is a process brings together a large variety of stakeholders to develop principles and criteria for sustainable production of biofuels
  
  
• Rural Energy Enterprise Development (REED)
  REED seeks to develop new sustainable energy enterprises that use clean, efficient, and renewable energy technologies to meet the energy needs of poor households in developing countries
  
  
• Seed Capital Assistance Facility (SCAF)
  The initiative involves the creation of a GEF and UN Foundation sponsored facility dedicated to helping early stage sustainable energy enterprises access start-up seed capital from mainstream energy investors
  
  
• Solar and Wind Energy Resource Assessment (SWERA)
  Renewable sources of energy, solar and wind in particular, can meet several times the world’s energy demands. Making use of these resources saves on national energy import costs, can generate national income in the form of energy exports, and drives innovation and job creation in this increasingly competitive energy market segment.

• Sustainable Energy Advisory Facility (SEAF)
  SEAF was a pilot initiative to provide information and technical support for sustainable energy activities in selected developing countries.
  
  
• Sustainable Energy Finance Initiative (SEFI)
  Provide current and targeted information to financiers while facilitating new economic tools that combine social and environmental factors - both risks and returns - as integral measures of economic performance