Business   

State mulls partnership with international energy agency

KOCHI: The State government will collaborate with the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP), an international agency which aims at expanding the global market for renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies.

A host of energy saving measures will be launched by the State after a formal tie-up. The government is to submit proposals in this connection by February, sources said.

In a message sent to The Hindu from its international secretariat in Vienna, REEEP’s deputy director (programme coordination) Binu Parthan said REEEP officials had held discussions with the State’s Power Minister and other senior officials in Vienna a few months back. The agency is expecting a proposal from the government by February 2009 on energy policy development, he said.

REEEP is also expecting similar proposals from other government agencies and all of them will be considered for support on a competitive basis. The decisions will be made by the organisation by May 2009, he added. The agency has an outlay of 4.3 million euros to support 43 projects, including those in the government sector. The REEEP grant to each project will be approximately 100,000 euros, according to him.

REEEP was launched at the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002. It unites partners from more than 30 countries.

Framing of policies, establishing a regulatory framework, improving awareness and disseminating data are some of the areas where the agency could offer help.

It extends support for developing projects under the Clean Development Mechanism. It has also created the Voluntary Carbon Offset Mechanism for governments.

The partnership is funded by a number of governments including Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States. Currently, REEEP has over 200 partners out of which more than 30 are governments.

The agency aims at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving access to reliable and clean energy, bringing economic benefits to nations that use energy in a more efficient way and increasing the share of indigenous renewable resources.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Corporate governance at its nadir
Accounting firm’s failed responsibility
Class action may stall Satyam takeover
Back to basics: boosting public expenditure
Circulars on charities — whether beneficial?
State mulls partnership with international energy agency
Indian cuisine
Salaried class choose PSBs
Titan’s new showroom
Coir exports take a roller-coaster ride

Copyright © 2009, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu