Cement, Energy & Environment Jan-Mar 2002

,I Change (UNFCCC) at the Rio Summit. GEF in the organised sector, which no doubt is finances interventions and measures that address global concerns of environment in the identified focal areas, namely; Climate Change, Biodiversity, Ozone Layer depletion and InternationalWaters. The Climate Change focal area aims to catalyse sustainable markets in the long term and enable the private sector to finance and diffuse technologies meeting the global as well as national development priority needs. Three types of projects are funded by GEF namely, i) regular projects, which may satisfy either the requirements of an OP (Operational Programme) or of short-term response measures; ii) medium sized projects, which must require not more than $1 million GEF funds; and, iii) enabling activities, which are measures that will facilitate implementation in accordance with the Convention. GEF finances the projects incrementally and in a typical scenario, the incremental cos t is determined as the difference in costs between a baseline or an existing situation and the desired GEF alternative scenario. In the energy efficiency context, it would imply additional costs in displaCing inefficient energy consumption practices by adoption of energy efficient systems (www.gefweb.org) . GEF is a platform for all developing countries to share their experience and concerns over global environment. Since most of the above projects pre under implementation, the long– term impacts are difficult to ascertain at this stage. However, a closer look at the type of interventions of GEF reveals that so far these interventions are focused at macro level and significant. But, there is need to focus on unorganised small -or medium-scale industrial clusters which are energy intensive (eg bricks, ceramics, glass and other small– scale industries). In Indi a, the estimated economic energy efficiency potential is up to 50 per cent in foundries and up to 40 per cent in brick making. From the social perspectives, these are typically labour intensive. GEF Mechanism for promoting Energy efficiency •!• National, regional and local energy strategies and planning •!• Sectoral policy development at national, regional, and local levels •!• Demand-side management programmes by electric utilities Market transformation Revised product designs Appliance standards, product labeling and consumer information Collection and synthesis of new data and information Financing mechanism innovations Information centres and services Awareness campaigns •!• Training programmes Courtesy : The Bulletin on Energy Efficiency, Feb. 2002, Pp. 20-22. E-mail: winrock@vsnl.com Web: www.ren ewingindia.org Fax: 91-11-6146004 37