United for Efficiency (U4E) is a global initiative supporting developing and emerging economies to switch to energy-efficient lighting, appliances and equipment.
This public-private partnership is convened by UNEP and brings together a range of stakeholders who are united in a common cause to improve energy efficiency in developing and emerging economies.

YOUR QUARTERLY CONNECTION TO HIGH-EFFICIENCY SOLUTIONS | Vol. 5, Issue 2
Welcome to the April 2022 newsletter
The U4E newsletter provides a digest of progress and upcoming developments by U4E and its partners. The current period has been characterised by important meetings to facilitate co-ordinated action on energy efficiency and cold chain, and the announcement of two new projects. It also saw the release of a number of new sustainable public procurement tools, project factsheets and training materials, and updates to the website to improve accessibility.
News
A key highlight of the past quarter was the virtual meeting of the Project Steering Committee for the Global Environment Facility, Global Project to Leapfrog Markets to Energy Efficient Lighting, Appliances and Equipment (GEF ID: 9337), project hosted by U4E in March 2022. U4E presented details of recent achievements under the project and upcoming plans, and were pleased to see so many of our partners represented. We would like to take this opportunity to reiterate our thanks to all our partners for their continuing commitment to working with us to advance energy-efficient lighting, appliances and equipment.
The Rwanda Cooling Initiative’s Green On-Wage (R-COOL GO) financing mechanism was launched in January 2022 by Rwanda’s Ministry of Environment through the Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA), and in collaboration with U4E and the Basel Agency for Sustainable Energy (BASE). Through this scheme environmentally friendly refrigerators and air conditioners will be more widely accessible and affordable in Rwanda, with eligible salaried employees from the public and private sectors able to request loans from participating banks to purchase new cooling appliances that meet strict energy and environmental performance criteria.
The benefits of implementation of sustainable public procurement through an energy services company will be demonstrated in Morocco through a project announced in January 2022. The Société d’Ingénierie Energétique, the Moroccan state-owned energy services company, and U4E will collaborate on actions which take a cohesive approach to address the technical, financial, and regulatory considerations of sustainable public procurement, drawing from U4E’s Sustainable Public Procurement Toolkit which was initially introduced through regional workshops.
New partnership and investment opportunities to enhance the impact of existing cold-chain initiatives across Africa were explored in Washington DC in March 2022. At the Sustainable Cold Chain in Africa Summit, hosted by U4E, the Centre for Sustainable Cooling, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the discussion focused on sustainable and scalable cold-chain solutions using systems-based approaches to advance knowledge transfer, business incubation, research development and technology innovation and deployment. Participants from governments, industries, international organisations, financial institutions, and civil society committed to work together to reduce post-harvest loss, improve value chain, and create resilient, healthy, equitable, as well as green communities.
In February 2022, the Energy Commission of Nigeria, in collaboration with U4E, formally launched the project, Scaling Up Energy-Efficient and Climate-Friendly Cooling in Nigeria’s NDC Revision. This Clean Cooling Collaborative (formerly K-CEP)-funded project aims to accelerate the transition to climate-friendly (low-global warming potential refrigerant) and energy-efficient air conditioning that costs less to operate, enhances electric grid resiliency and mitigates impacts on the environment.
New Resources & Tools
Published in March 2022, U4E’s new Green Public Procurement Technical Guidelines and Specifications for Energy-Efficient Lighting provide step‑by‑step guidance on how to apply sustainability and current best technical criteria for lighting products to public procurement activities, and introduces the rationale to be adopted by procurement practitioners when selecting among a set of products.
The lighting guidelines join their sister publications on air-conditioning and refrigeration and the Sustainable Public Procurement Toolkit to provide comprehensive guidance to support state and semi-state entities in developing and emerging economies to develop their technical requirements for tendering processes to procure only higher energy efficiency products. 

All of U4E’s resources on sustainable public procurement can now be accessed directly on the U4E website through a new sustainable public procurement page introduced in January 2022. In another new development on the website, a language search filter has been added to the Publications page to allow users to search for publications in their preferred language. Although many of U4E’s publications are only available in English, a selection have been translated to languages such as Arabic, Chinese, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.
In the first quarter of 2022, U4E’s resources on sustainable public procurement also helped support third party activities and resources. In March 2022, the U4E Green Public Procurement Technical Guidelines and Specifications for Energy-efficient Refrigeration Appliances and Air Conditioners were featured as part of the Asia Pacific Green Public Procurement Network webinar series aimed at sharing knowledge and networking on sustainable public procurement in the Asia Pacific region. The webinar provided an introduction to U4E’s work, presented the main recommendations from the guidelines and included case studies from India and Thailand.
Published in February 2022, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)’s Toolkit on Digital Transformation for People-Oriented Cities and Communities supports strategizing and planning the digital transformation of cities and communities to promote sustainable, inclusive, resilient and improved quality of life for residents in cities and communities. U4E is pleased to support the Toolkit, and its Green Public Procurement Technical Guidelines and Specifications for energy-efficient products are included as one of the key tools in the Smart Energy Management module.
A key component of U4E’s activities is the development of capacity within developing and emerging economies to facilitate the transition to more energy efficient markets. One such activity was undertaken in March 2022, when representatives from the key institutions involved in the Transition to Efficient Lighting in Bolivia project met in La Paz, Bolivia to receive training to expand capacity within the wider stakeholder group on the monitoring, verification and compliance (MVC) aspects of the project.
Also in March 2022, U4E and the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) convened a meeting with Southern African power utilities and distribution transformers focal points to consider updated MEPS and total cost of ownership of low loss distribution transformers. This included training on the use of the new U4E total cost of ownership tool.
Partner Spotlight
The One Planet network is a global framework of action to enhance international collaboration, cooperation and coordination to increase combined knowledge, effectiveness and impact to accelerate the shift towards sustainable consumption and production in both developed and developing countries. It implements the 10 Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production (10YFP) and supports capacity building and facilitates access to technical and financial assistance for developing countries for this shift.

Since 2020, the One Planet Network Sustainable Public Procurement programme has provided support to U4E to develop green public procurement technical guidelines and specifications for lighting, air conditioning and refrigeration products. These provide a set of technical specifications for countries to develop their requirements for tendering processes in order to procure only higher energy efficiency products and aim to simplify the deployment and adoption of sustainable public procurement practices within the national policy framework of a country.
UPCOMING EVENTS

3-5 MAY 2022
EEMODS 2022, Stuttgart, Germany
12th edition of the International Conference on Energy Efficiency in Motor Driven Systems

17-19 MAY 2022
SEforALL Forum, Kigali, Rwanda
With U4E co-led sessions, including:
19 May 2022, 10:15-11:00 (CAT)
Energy Efficiency Policy Actions & Market Development, Capacity Building Hub
19 May 2022
ACES Open House, Side Event

1-3 JUNE 2022
Energy Efficiency in Domestic Appliances and Lighting
Proceedings of the 10th International Conference (EEDAL’19), Toulouse, France
 
6-11 June 2022
eceee Summer Study, Presqu’île de Giens, France
 
14-16 June 2022
Mission Efficiency, Energy Efficiency Financing Charette, Hosted by the UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre
 
21-23 September 2022
Clean Energy Ministerial, Pittsburgh, USA

For further details on any of these events, please email us at unep-u4e@un.org.
With thanks to our funders



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