Regional Focus

Sub-Saharan Africa

Reliable modern energy services in general, and rural electrification in particular, can play a critical role in enhancing productivity and reducing poverty. However, Africa’s share of commercial energy use is currently very much below the desirable level, with its enormous energy resources remaining untapped. This situation has come about because the necessary infrastructure such as pipelines and electricity grids, are lacking, and because the region’s widespread poverty means that there is a lack of income to pay for the services. Obviously, sustainable industrial development will remain unattainable in the absence of reliable and affordable energy supplies. Against this background, the priorities in Africa are as follows:

  1. To assist in raising productivity by minimizing industrial waste generation and increasing recycling (which will also preserve Africa’s natural environment), and to introduce environmentally sound and appropriate technologies.
  2. Given the increasingly pressing problems with water, to develop programmes to minimize water consumptionduring industrial processing, and to continue the protection of large marine eco-systems such as the Gulf of Guinea.
  3. Given that urban waste disposal is a persistent problem in most cities, to promote increased recycling of urban waste, which will also provide job creation opportunities for the urban poor.
Arab countries

The Programme will vary according to subregion. In the Eastern Mediterranean subregion, Governments need to incorporate into their economic development efforts the necessary energyrelated and environmental concerns. UNIDO will focus on activities related to renewable energy, industrial energy efficiency, cleaner and sustainable production, water management, and the implementation of the Montreal Protocol and other international environmental protocols and agreements.

In the Gulf countries, environmental management and control need to be improved. UNIDO will focus on promoting modern technologies and processes that are cleaner and more environmentally sustainable, both within and outside the framework of the multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs). Protecting water resources from contamination and excessive consumption will be a special area of focus. In North Africa, natural resource degradation and depletion, especially water, is an increasingly serious problem. UNIDO will focus on building national capacities to address industrial pollution. In the Arab LDCs, UNIDO will focus on promoting the use of renewable energy to support and secure sustainability of
productive activities.

Asia and the Pacific

The region is facing severe environmental deterioration due to a combination of factors such as high population density and growth, rapid industrialization and urbanization, natural disasters and poverty. Other significant environmental problems include land degradation caused by deforestation and inappropriate agricultural practices, water loss, and mangrove clearance for aquaculture.

UNIDO will continue to assist the more advanced countries of the region such as China, India, and some Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries in the successful implementation of the MEAs. These countries also need programmes in energy efficiency, capacity-building and cleaner production. On the other hand, the less developed countries will need assistance in modern technologies for renewable energy, water management with transfer of environmentally-sound technologies (ESTs), as well as capacity-building in cleaner and sustainable industrial production.

Latin America and the Caribbean

In the context of the elaboration of the Regional Programme for Latin America and the Caribbean, work will continue on the establishment of a Latin American Observatory for Renewable Energy and the Rational Use of Energy in Latin America and the Caribbean, taking into account Board decision IDB.32/Dec.8
on the Regional Programme for Latin America and the Caribbean and the conclusions reached at the Ministerial Meeting on Renewable Energy held in Montevideo in September 2006.

The network of National Cleaner Production Centres (NCPCs) in the region, particularly in Central America, will continue to be consolidated. In the area of large marine eco-systems, attention will be given to the Humboldt Current and the Gulf of Mexico. As regards the Stockholm Convention on the Elimination of Persistent Organic Pollutants, implementation of national plans is expected to continue during the biennium.

Europe and the NIS

In this region, emphasis will be placed on development of renewable energy sources and energy efficiency. The latter problem is associated with high levels of energy consumption in the region and creates a particularly serious problem, with its roots in the highly subsidized energy prices of the planned economy era. Awareness-building in energy efficiency measures and the introduction of efficient industrial energy systems is therefore required.

In the field of renewable sources of energy UNIDO will emphasize the development of TC projects and programmes oriented towards exploring the potential use of renewable sources of energy such as biofuels, wind, solar, biomass, small hydropower, etc. It is expected that the UNIDO International Centre for Hydrogen Technologies (ICHET) in Turkey will promote research and demonstration projects in the region.

Cleaner and sustainable development will be further promoted and expanded through the establishment of new NCPCs, using the expertise of the centres developed by UNIDO in other countries of Central Europe, thereby promoting East-East cooperation in the region.

Further cooperation will be provided in the area of water management and productivity, since industrial effluents are a major source of pollution to rivers. Therefore, the transfer of ESTs is required to improve the water quality of the large river systems in the region as well as the Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea.

In the context of the Montreal Protocol, UNIDO will continue its technical cooperation projects in the field of ozone depleting substances. It is expected also that follow-up projects aimed at the elimination of stockpiles of POPs in the region will be formulated on the basis of national implementation plans (NIPs) developed through the enabling activities projects carried out by UNIDO within the framework of Stockholm Convention.