Rapid Assessment and Gap Analysis of Access to Energy Services

REP-PoR launched the rapid assessment of access to energy services at national levels in the Asia-Pacific region in mid-2005. Overall, this initiative aims to highlight issues that hinder access to energy services by lower income groups, close to or below the poverty line. The process was initiated through two planning workshops, one covering Asia, held in Bangkok, Thailand and the other covering the Pacific held in Apia, Samoa.  The workshops involved experts, UNDP Country Office focal points, and national experts to arrive at a common framework for the assessment. Subsequently, 15 countries in Asia and all 15 Pacific Islands Counties (PICs) initiated a ‘rapid assessment and gap analysis of access to energy’, supported by 18 UNDP Country Offices. The figure 1 presents the schematic diagram of the gap assessment process. More...

Energy Security for the Poor

REP-PoR will be producing a regional advocacy report that will focus on energy security for the poor, entitled “Energy for the Poor: The Asia-Pacific Report”. This report will look at the human dimension of energy issues in the region, with a particular focus on the poor, and propose policies and interventions that support human development. As part of this advocacy report process, three key policy studies have been initiated by REP-PoR. As part of this advocacy report process, three key policy studies have been lauched by REP-PoR.  They are:

Impact of Rising Oil Prices on the Poor and Implications for the Achievement of the MDG

Poor are likely to be adversely affected due to higher prices for energy since late 2002 in the Asia-Pacific countries. Such a situation will restrict progress towards poverty reduction, and hamper the achievement of the MDGs.  Given the above scenario the central objective of the study is to assess socio-economic impacts of rising oil prices at global, regional and national levels.  The study therefore aims to provide an appropriate framework within which regional and country-specific impacts of global price increases could be assessed. More...

Cross-Border Energy Trade and its Impact on the Poor

Energy demand is expanding rapidly in the Asia-Pacific region and is expected to account for a fifth of global demand by 2010. Traditional energy importers like Japan and the Republic of Korea have been joined by China and India recently, emerging as top energy-consuming and import-seeking countries in global markets. Indonesia, until recently an energy exporter became a net importer in 2004 while Malaysia is also moving in that direction. These developments have significant implications for the poor's access to modern energy sources, which would eventually lead to new avenues of cross-border trade in energy. How this will affect poor's accessibility to energy is a matter of grave concern requiring urgent analysis and attention. 

The central objectives of the study are review developments in cross-border energy trade at global, regional, sub-regional and bilateral levels, and establish the energy trade status; assess economic, social, environmental and energy security impacts of energy trade for both exporting and importing countries; assess impacts of energy trade on poor covering access, affordability, incomes, livelihoods and lifestyles; analyse implications of the above for attaining the MDGs; and outline recommendations for energy accessibility for the poor.  More...

Regional Mapping of Options to Promote Private Investments in Alternative Energy Sources for the Poor

The surge in international oil prices since late 2002 and the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change in February 2005 have lent new urgency to the accelerated development of renewable energy markets in developing countries. In the Asia-Pacific region, the majorities of developing countries rely on imported oil, and have a large low income populous with low or no access to electricity and a high dependence on traditional biomass fuels. Mounting uncertainties over fossil fuel supplies and prices undermine their energy transition prospects, whereas new opportunities offered by Kyoto implementation vehicles, such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), have the potential to enhance their energy security and livelihoods in furtherance of the MDGs.

The central objectives of the study are to: identify current and proposed renewable energy policies, programmes and initiatives in the region against global oil price trends, energy security concerns, and socio-economic development and environmental goals, and emphasis on achieving the MDGs. More...

Developing Regional Strategy for the CDM in the Asia Pacific Region

UNDP headquarters has approved a two-year trial of the UNDP-MDG Carbon Facility that was reported during in the Global Management Team Meeting in the Hague, Neterlands in early 2006. UNDP aims to add MDG-based development dividends to the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and other carbon financing facilities that have emerged with and without the Kyoto Protocol framework. All regional bureaux have been requested to develop regional strategies that will feed into the UNDP Global Strategy. In this context, UNDP APRC REP-PoR, in cooperation with the International Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES/Japan) hosted a two-day consultative workshop on the “Development of a Regional Strategy on the Clean Development Mechanism.” The workshop was organized in light of increasing strategic UNDP engagement in carbon financing, including the recently launched UNDP MDG Carbon Facility.

The workshop participants encompassed UNDP Country Office CDM Focal points as well as Government CDM focal points/representatives and key experts. The principal objective of the workshop was the identification and discussion of elements for the development of a new Asia-Pacific Regional Strategy on the, CDM which is currently being finalized. The workshop fostered knowledge-sharing by reviewing the most recent decisions and developments on CDM procedures and modalities; taking stock of emerging environmental commodity markets and carbon financing and UNDP’s specific services in this regard; looking at UNDP Country Office capacities and CDM activities and discussing national level experiences with CDM to-date. Major discussions revolved around the need to define clear poverty reduction criteria for the approval of CDM projects and to re-focus CDM in sectors that are pertinent to poverty reduction and the MDGs.