Regional Forum for National Designated Entities: Central Asia and Eastern Europe
June 15-16, 2016. Regional Forum for National Designated Entities (NDEs) in Central Asia and Eastern Europe was held in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
The regional forum was organized by the Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia (CAREC) in close cooperation with the Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN). Throughout the forum participants discussed possibilities of receiving technical assistance in technology transfer, knowledge exchange and capacity building on climate change. More than 30 representatives from the governmental and non-governmental agencies of Central Asia and Eastern Europe learned about CTCN request and application process and familiarized themselves with procedures, terms of conditions and other tasks of the network. It is known that CTCN provides technical assistance at the request of the countries in the areas of climate change adaptation and mitigation, and touches upon water, agriculture, energy, transport and other sectors.
Representatives from Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina presented best practices on their technical assistance projects within CTCN. They have shared lessons learned in all stages of the request process. For the time being, in the context of CTCN assistance framework, Albania is developing the first local plan on energy-efficiency, and providing capacity building exercises and trainings to improve understanding of the different counterparts about implementation of national, local and municipal plans of actions in the energy sector.
The second-largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Banja Luka, requested help from the CTCN to modernize its district heating system with the support of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The project conducts city-wide mapping of the energy flow in the heating system and identifies leaks using an unmanned aerial drone equipped with a thermal camera. This project will save up to 20,000 tons of CO₂ each year and €4.5 million in heating costs.
Participants were also given an opportunity to discuss the linkages between investments and technology transfer. In fact, CTCN jointly with GCF and MDBs can explore a niche to provide financial support to the climate technology projects based on technical assistance, which could be backed up through CTCN.
More than 180 requests on technical assistance from different parts of the world are nowadays received by CTCN. There is a need to expand the network of DNEs from Central Asian and Eastern European countries as well as encourage a more active process of information exchange and request applications within the CTCN mandate.
CAREC as a member of the network will further provide support to the countries of Central Asia to inform about CTCN and its opportunities and maintain a so-called Post-Paris process, which serves as a regional dialogue platform on climate change.
