From:    justin at climateregistry.org
Subject: California Climate Action Registry Co-Digester Protocol Kick-off Meeting.
Date: October 21, 2008

The California Climate Action Registry is developing the Co-Digestion Protocol - its first organic waste diversion project protocol. As a first foray into the organic waste diversion sector, the California Registry will host a public meeting to discuss the development of a co-digestion greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction project protocol and wants to invite all interested stakeholders to join us. The meeting will be held on November 13 from 10:00AM to 3:30PM PST at the Standard Hotel in Los Angeles, California.

The California Registry is dedicated to the development of high quality, standardized protocols for GHG reduction projects. The Co-Digestion Protocol will provide an accurate GHG accounting methodology for GHG reduction projects that co-digest (alongside manure waste) organic waste streams that otherwise would have gone to anaerobic treatment/disposal systems such as solid waste landfills, anaerobic lagoons, and wastewater treatment facilities. Co-digestion projects will prevent the release of methane to the atmosphere by capturing and combusting methane gas.

This kick-off meeting will also provide an opportunity for discussion of other possible project activities related to organic waste diversion since the baseline calculation methodology for co-digestion activities will likely be relevant to other project activities in the organic waste diversion sector.

The California Registry would like to encourage all interested stakeholders to join us, including representatives and experts from:
·       the dairy and agricultural industries
·       the wastewater and waste management industries
·       waste diversion and environmental advocacy organizations
·       project developer organizations
·       academia
·       local, state, and federal agencies

If you plan on attending, please RSVP to  policy at climateregistry.org by November 7, 2008. 

A detailed agenda will be provided to all attendees prior to the meeting.

The California Climate Action Registry is developing the Co-Digestion Protocol - its first organic waste diversion project protocol. As a first foray into the organic waste diversion sector, the California Registry will host a public meeting to discuss the development of a co-digestion greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction project protocol and wants to invite all interested stakeholders to join us. The meeting will be held on November 13 from 10:00AM to 3:30PM PST at the Standard Hotel in Los Angeles, California.

The California Registry is dedicated to the development of high quality, standardized protocols for GHG reduction projects. The Co-Digestion Protocol will provide an accurate GHG accounting methodology for GHG reduction projects that co-digest (alongside manure waste) organic waste streams that otherwise would have gone to anaerobic treatment/disposal systems such as solid waste landfills, anaerobic lagoons, and wastewater treatment facilities. Co-digestion projects will prevent the release of methane to the atmosphere by capturing and combusting methane gas.

This kick-off meeting will also provide an opportunity for discussion of other possible project activities related to organic waste diversion since the baseline calculation methodology for co-digestion activities will likely be relevant to other project activities in the organic waste diversion sector.

The California Registry would like to encourage all interested stakeholders to join us, including representatives and experts from:
·       the dairy and agricultural industries
·       the wastewater and waste management industries
·       waste diversion and environmental advocacy organizations
·       project developer organizations
·       academia
·       local, state, and federal agencies

If you plan on attending, please RSVP to  policy at climateregistry.org by November 7, 2008.  A detailed agenda will be provided to all attendees prior to the meeting.

Harmonious Cities - a Social and Environmental Solution.
Mario Osava, IPS, October 23, 2008.

RIO DE JANEIRO - Sao Paulo emits only a tenth of the greenhouse gases that San Diego produces, even though this Brazilian metropolis is four times larger than that city in California, according to a report released today by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat). Based on such comparisons, the State of the World’s Cities 2008/2009 — a report published every two years by the UN agency, which in this new edition focuses on “Harmonious Cities” — concludes that the contribution of cities to global warming has more to do with consumption patterns and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita than it does with the level of urbanisation.

The most urbanised region in the developing world is Latin America and the Caribbean, with 77 percent of its population living in cities — a proportion expected to increase to 85 percent within the next two decades, Cecilia Martà nez, UN-Habitat’s Latin America regional director, highlighted at a press conference.

The report, which contains analysis and recommendations on spatial, social and environmental harmony, was also launched in Bangkok and London. Prosperity alone does not produce harmony; cities also need equity and sustainability, said UN-Habitat Executive Director Anna Tibaijuka.

Latin America is also the region with the highest number of unequal cities.

The Gini inequality index, which measures the degree of income disparity, marked a 0.55 average coefficient for a selection of 19 Latin American cities, exceeding even the levels for Africa, which has the cities with the largest number of poor people and the greatest proportion of slum communities.

UN-Habitat considers a 0.4 coefficient as the alert line, with anything above that level indicating an unacceptable level of inequality. Western Europe, with averages ranging from 0.25 to 0.30, presents the largest number of most equal cities, but the city with the highest equality level in the world is Beijing, with a Gini coefficient of 0.22.

Not only does inequality within cities or between cities, and between regions in the same country, directly affect urban harmony, it also creates more inequality by having a dampening effect on economic growth and contributing to a less favourable environment for investment, Tibaijuka pointed out at the presentation of the report.

Latin America and the Caribbean also stand out for the faster growth rate registered in many small cities, which have gone from having tens of thousands of inhabitants to populations numbering in the hundreds of thousands in just over a decade. An example of this rapid growth is Itaquaquecetuba, on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, which in the 1970s was a city of 30,000 and has since grown to 334,000, with an annual growth rate of ten percent in the last decade.

Some 70 Brazilian cities have experienced a similar phenomenon in the past 15 years, as a result of a boom in tourism in many areas, the installation of large corporations, and other factors of economic prosperity or quality-of-life enhancement, Martínez explained.

As of 2007, the world has stepped into an “urban century,” as last year for the first time ever the number of urban dwellers in the world surpassed the number of people living in rural areas, she added.

***

However, there are still sharp differences from one region to another, with Asia and Africa having only 41 and 39 percent, respectively, of their populations in urban areas, while the level of urbanisation in other continents and regions is above 70 percent.

But the current trend makes it possible to forecast that by 2050 these differences will be less pronounced, with Asia, for example, bringing its urban population up to 63 percent, chiefly driven by the growth of Chinese cities, which will account for 70 percent of that country’s total population, offsetting a slower rate of urbanisation in India.

The report and several UN-Habitat officers agree that while cities are an environmental problem and one of the great causes of global warming, they are, and must be, “part of the solution” as well.

***

Better planning in the use of energy-efficient means of transportation, less dependence on motorised vehicles, an increase in urban density and policies aimed at reducing waste and spatial and social inequality could work to curb carbon emissions and contribute to mitigating climate change, they say.

The disparity in the rates of greenhouse gas emissions per person that exists between the large cities of the world is more a reflection of the patterns of consumption, in particular energy use, than of the levels of income or visible pollution.

The report’s findings reveal that Mexico City generates 2.9 tonnes of carbon emissions per person per year, and that Sao Paulo produces double that amount. San Diego is at the top of the list of carbon emitters, with 11.7 tonnes per capita — more than double the amount produced by Tokyo and three times the emissions generated by Stockholm and Seoul, but followed closely in volume of emissions by Toronto and Shanghai.

With 3,351 coastal cities located in low-altitude areas — that is, under 10 metres above sea level–, and therefore threatened by the rise in sea level, there is an enormous urban population that will suffer severe consequences as a result of climate change, the report underlines.

In addition, there are human agglomerations that are facing the risk of water shortages and natural disasters, such as those caused by the El Niño climate phenomenon in the Andean region and hurricanes in the Caribbean, Martínez said.

Adapting cities to mitigate the consequences of climate change is one of UN-Habitat’s chief concerns, and, in association with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the agency is encouraging cities to “observe the phenomena” which are taking place and implement integrated urbanisation and environmental plans to address foreseeable challenges, Martínez concluded.

————

Major cities call for dramatic emission cuts by all nations - Mayors and officials from 32 major cities from around the world urged “all nations” Thursday to achieve “drastic cuts” in greenhouse gas emissions under a global climate accord to succeed the Kyoto Protocol in 2012.

Kyodo News, October 24, 2008.

“The international community must cooperate in making an abrupt shift in direction for drastic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions,” Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara and Toronto Mayor David Miller said in a joint statement issued after a two-day meeting in Tokyo of the so-called C40 group of major international cities.

Stressing national governments’ crucial role in curbing global warming, delegates at the C40 Tokyo Conference on Climate Change said cities are “acting now” and “showing leadership on combating climate change” in the runup to high-level U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen slated for December 2009, where global negotiations for a post-Kyoto framework will be concluded, the statement said.

The United Nations is set to begin the final phase of negotiations on the post-Kyoto deal at ministerial talks in December in Poland.

The C40 will hold a summit next May in Seoul to advance climate change initiatives.

Since its inception in London in 2005, the C40 has been working to accelerate programs by the participating cities to combat climate change by sharing effective practices and taking action to reduce greenhouse gases.

Window of Opportunity Closing Rapidly.
Stephen Leahy

UXBRIDGE, Canada, Oct 22 (IPS) - The global financial crisis has pushed climate change off the front pages despite new evidence that it is happening faster and with stronger impacts than previous projections, a new report warns. Meanwhile, some political leaders in Europe, Canada and elsewhere are saying that now is not the time to make sharp reductions in greenhouse gas emissions because the global economy is heading into a recession.

“It is clear that climate change is already having a greater impact than most scientists had anticipated, so it’s vital that international mitigation and adaptation responses become swifter and more ambitious,” said Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, professor of Climatology and Environmental Sciences at the Universite Catholique de Louvain, Belgium.

The new data is so compelling that van Ypersele, the newly elected vice chair of the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has urged the European Union to aim for a lower temperature target than the 2 degrees C they adopted in 1996.

That will require emission reductions beyond the 20 percent lower than the 1990 baseline by the year 2020 that the EU has as a target but is struggling to meet.

The new climate data since the 2007 IPCC report includes the astonishingly rapid meltdown of the Arctic sea ice over the last two years. Arctic Ocean water temperatures are 5 degrees C warmer than normal this October, ensuring that winter ice will form later and be thinner, setting the stage for more melting next summer.

Experts are now predicting a summer with no permanent ice in the Arctic in as soon as five years — for the first time in a million years, according to WWF’s new report, “Climate change: faster, stronger, sooner”. That is 30 to 60 years in advance of the IPCC projections.

The Canadian government, among many others, does not take the risks of climate change seriously, he said. Weaver recently published a book on climate change — “Keeping Our Cool: Canada in a Warming World” — to help the public understand the climate crisis and what needs to be done.

While many think the impacts of climate change are far off in the future, the WWF report cites studies reporting that yields of import food crops like wheat, maize and barley have been in decline since 1980, largely due to rising temperatures. That will worsen, especially in South Asia and southern Africa, where there will be sharp declines in yields in local food crops.

Warming oceans have already also increased the number and size of “dead zones” affecting global fisheries. Sea levels are also rising faster as Greenland and Antarctic glaciers melt far faster than predictions, putting coastal communities under greater threat from storm surges and salt-water intrusion into coastal fresh-water aquifers, the report notes.

“It was time to remind policy-makers of the heavy consequences of inaction on climate,” said Delia Villagrasa, senior advisor at the WWF European Policy Office in Brussels.

This week’s release of the WWF report was also in response to the media’s preoccupation with the global financial crisis, Villagrasa told IPS.

That view is mirrored by Wednesday’s launch of the “Green Economy Initiative” to mobilise the global economy towards investments in clean technologies and “natural” infrastructure, such as forests and soils, as the best bet for real growth.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and leading economists said at the launch in London that there are enormous economic, social and environmental benefits in combating climate change and re-investing in natural infrastructure. These benefits range from new green jobs in clean tech and clean energy businesses up to ones in sustainable agriculture and conservation-based enterprises.

“Transformative ideas need to be discussed and transformative decisions taken,” Achim Steiner, UNEP’s executive director, said in a statement.

Transformative decisions are particularly needed at the next round of U.N. climate convention negotiations in Poznan, Poland in December, Steiner said.

The climate meetings in Poznan will lay the groundwork for a final global climate deal to be negotiated in Copenhagen in 2009. This new climate treaty will be the successor to the Kyoto Protocol and is likely to be the most important international agreement in human history.

Even though Europe has taken the lead on climate, it is now having trouble reaching agreement amongst its members, largely due to heavy lobbying from the same old suspects — the oil, coal and heavy industry sectors, said Villagrasa.

Italy, Poland and the Czech Republic, among other coal-powered countries, are fighting European emission reduction targets even though the vast majority of Europe’s citizens want strong action on climate, she said.

Without strong European leadership, it is not clear how the global community will reach a new international agreement to reduce emissions at a level and timetable that reflects what the world’s best scientists say are needed to stabilise the climate.

Meanwhile, in recent years annual emissions of climate-altering gases have already exceeded the IPCC worst-case scenarios, said Weaver. That means Earth’s atmosphere is trapping more of the sun’s heat sooner than expected, inevitably accelerating climate impacts.

“Copenhagen is the last chance for humanity to solve this,” said Weaver.

REEEP announces Call for Proposals for EUR 4.3 million in grant funding.
Vienna, 23.10.2008
The Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) today announced a call for project proposals which support the development of markets for renewable energy and energy efficiency. The project call is REEEP’s largest in its five year history with more than 4.3 million Euro available for projects in least developed countries and emerging market economies.

The programme cycle received funding from a consortium comprised of Australia, Ireland, Italy, Norway and the United Kingdom.

Australia, with its significant contribution will help intensify REEEP’s efforts in small island states in the Pacific.

The United Kingdom and Norway will continue their focus on emerging economies and Ireland and Italy will continue their focus on Africa.

The REEEP call is an open tender seeking projects from priority countries - Brazil, China, India and South Africa and from across the developing world.

REEEP will build on its experience gained over the last five years with a bottom-up approach to defining priorities and selecting projects.

REEEP is intensifying its efforts to directly engage governments and financial institutions in its programme. REEEP is inviting countries with specific policy, legislative or regulatory needs or development finance institutions with need for financing structures and business models to develop projects directly with REEEP. It is hoped that by assisting governments with lowering risk within the renewables and energy efficiency sector and by working with development agencies to encourage business and finance models, finance can be attracted into new markets.

To increase operational efficiency and to increase transparency and openness, all proposals will be submitted for evaluation via REEEP’s new on-line Programme Management Information System (PMIS).

Dr. Marianne Osterkorn, REEEP International Director stated that the partnership can now add value across a number of areas. “We are grateful to all REEEP donors – UK, Norway, Ireland and Italy and we welcome the new donor Australia to the REEEP programme. We look forward to working with Australia to support the Pacific Islands to develop local energy sources and helping their quest for energy security. We also look forward to intensifying our engagement with governments and development financial institutions to increase the chances of investments in sustainable energy infrastructure “.
REEEP previously disbursed € 3.2 million euro in 2007,  € 2.2 million in 2006 and € 1.1 million in 2005.

Agata Gago
Media Relations
Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP)
International Secretariat
Wagramerstrasse 5
1400 Vienna, Austria
Tel: +48 503 180 791
 http://www.reeep.org

U.S. agrees to debt-for-nature swap to preserve Peru rainforests.

In a bid to preserve some of Peru’s biologically diverse rainforests, the United States agreed this week to a $25 million debt-for-nature swap with the country, Peru’s second since 2002. Over the next seven years, in exchange for erasing millions of their debt, Peru will fund local non-governmental organizations dedicated to protecting tropical rain forests of the southwestern Amazon Basin and dry forests of the central Andes.

“This agreement will build on the success of previous U.S. government debt swaps with Peru and will further the cause of environmental conservation in a country with one of the highest levels of biodiversity on the planet,” said Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

Other debt-for-nature agreements have already been brokered with Bangladesh, Belize, Botswana, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Jamaica, Panama, Paraguay, and the Philippines.

This week’s swap makes Peru the largest beneficiary of such deals with the U.S., with more than $35 million dedicated to environmental conservation in the country.

19 November                      Register for FREE!

Dear Pincas,

Hedging the weather – making the $32 billion market work for you

Your chance to hear from market leaders and key regulators at your own desk. This exciting platform provides you with the opportunity to network via the forums and chatrooms, as well as viewing white papers from leaders in the weather risk management field. An opportunity to put your questions to the experts and debate the issues that matter most to you!

Confirmed speakers include:

• Martin Malinow, Chief Executive Officer, GALILEO WEATHER RISK MANAGEMENT ADVISORS, and President, WEATHER RISK MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION
• Thomas Kammann, SWISS RE
• Juerg Trueb, SWISS RE
• Sandeep Ramachandran, SWISS RE
• Neha Agarwal, Product Manager, Weather Insurance, ICICI LOMBARD
• Peter Brewer, Chief Investment Officer, CUMULUS FUNDS

View the programme here!

As a past delegate of Carbon Trading, we are please to automatically register you to this coming up Weather Risk e-symposium.

Should you be unable to attend the event this time, please let us know by the 3 November.

See you online on the 19 November.

Best regards,

Mustafah Abdullah
Senior Conference Producer

REGISTER FREE

19th November 2008

weatherrisk.brighttalk.com

Contact details:

Aurelie Li

+44 (0)207 004 7430

 

P.S. Energy Risk Europe takes place in London on 28-30 October – A showcase of the top talents in the industry will make it an unmissable event – find program details at www.ertradingderivatives.com

===========================================================================

UPCOMING INTERNET EVENT NOVEMBER 19, 2008

Upcoming Event
19 Nov ‘08UPCOMMING EVENT

Weather Risk Management 08

“Hedging the weather – making the $32 billion market work for you”
Live and online - take part from the comfort of your own desk

Program
4:00am New York/ 9:00am London/ 4:00pm Singapore
Chairman opening introduction

Roderick Bruce
Senior Reporter
ENERGY RISK

4:10am New York/ 9:10am London/ 4:10pm Singapore
Come rain or shine: risk management in the weather market

How does weather risk management work?
Benefits of weather derivatives
General goals of risk management
Matching the risk profile of your company to your risk management programme

4:40am New York/ 9:40am London/ 4:40pm Singapore
Storm in a tea cup: outlook for weather derivatives over the next year

The weather market today
Current size, scope and participation
Impact of the credit crunch on the weather derivatives market
Expected market developments

Peter Brewer
Chief Investment Officer, Cumulus Funds
PCE Investors Ltd

5:10am New York/ 10:10am London/ 5:10pm Singapore
What is the weather forecast on your business? Effectively managing your weather risk

Understanding the product classes in weather risk management
Mapping out your financial and operational exposures to weather

5:40am New York/ 10:40am London/ 5:40pm Singapore
Weather-proof your business: what senior management should know about weather risk management?

Understanding the mechanism
Putting a value to the worse-case scenarios
Determining the fair values of weather derivatives

6:10am New York/ 11:10am London/ 6:10pm Singapore
Weather risk management and climate change

Cost impact of weather events

6:40am New York/ 11:40am London/ 6:40pm Singapore
Insurance linked securities – prospects for end-users

Market trends
How to benefit from catastrophe bonds
Understanding the trigger mechanism

7:40am New York/ 12:40pm London/ 7:40pm Singapore
Keeping tabs on the weather: improvements in meteorological data and forecasting methods

Short term and long term forecast
A survey of trends
Managing biased data
Putting these raw data to commercial modelling

8:10am New York/ 1:10pm London/ 8:10pm Singapore
Impact of fund flows on the weather derivatives market

Liquidity effect
Implications on weather trading

8:40am New York/ 1:40pm London/ 8:40pm Singapore
PANEL DISCUSSION: Key differences between the US and European weather markets and what Europe can learn from across the pond

Roderick Bruce
Senior Reporter
ENERGY RISK

9:40am New York/ 2:40pm London/ 9:40pm Singapore
Measuring the correlation between index-linked weather prices and energy price

10:10am New York/ 3:10pm London/ 10:10pm Singapore
Recent innovations in weather risk management products

Hurricane index
Typhoon derivatives
Thunder derivatives

10:40am New York/ 3:40pm London/ 10:40pm Singapore
The next frontier: wind risk management contacts

Smoothing out wind volatility
Buying into indexes with wind underlying
Case study of a wind farm

11:10am New York/ 4:10pm London/ 11:10pm Singapore
Preparing for a rainy day: weather-based financial risk management solutions for the agricultural market

Key winning strategies for agri companies
Unique characteristics of the agri sector
How much insurance-linked securities would agris need?

11:40am New York/ 4:40pm London/ 11:40pm Singapore
Case study of an end-user solution

Meeting the educational needs of the industry end-user
Tailored solutions
Case example of a successful weather hedge

12:10pm New York/ 5:10pm London/ 0:10am Singapore
Chairman’s closing remarks

Roderick Bruce
Senior Reporter
ENERGY RISK

Environment on AlterNet.
October 21st, 2008
 http://www.alternet.org/environment
___________________________________________________________

From the editors:
AlterNet has now rolled out voter guides for all our issue areas to help you make informed decisions in the upcoming election — just two weeks to go. Below is our enviro guide and you can also find a guide specifically for water issues in our Water section. Where do the candidates stand on different strains of energy policy? How about clean water? Green jobs? Check out the voter guides.

We’ve also got some great election and economy related content this week — the big topics of the day, including some words that Michael Pollan has for the next president.

Thanks for reading,

Tara Lohan, Managing Editor
___________________________________________________________

SAVING THE ENVIRONMENT MAY BE OUR BEST HOPE FOR THE ECONOMY — ELECTION GUIDE
AlterNet
From climate change to energy independence, a look at where
the candidates stand on this year’s top 10 environmental
issues.
 http://www.alternet.org/environment/1019…

ENVIRONMENTAL FAILURE: A RUINED PLANET IS CLOSER TO REALITY
By James Gustave Speth, Yale Environment 360
Environmental groups have grown in strength and
sophistication, but the environment has continued to go
downhill. Why?
 http://www.alternet.org/environment/1038…

HOW THE ECONOMIC CRISIS WILL AFFECT THE ENVIRONMENT
By Michael T. Klare, Huffington Post
Will the crisis be good or bad for the environment,
especially with respect to global warming?
 http://www.alternet.org/environment/1038…

CLIMATE CHANGE THREATENS TO DRY UP THE SOUTHWEST’S FUTURE
By Jason Mark, Earth Island Journal
The abundant water and cheap energy that have fueled the
Southwest’s transformation are starting to dry up.
 http://www.alternet.org/environment/1033…

DEAR MR. NEXT PRESIDENT — FOOD, FOOD, FOOD
By Michael Pollan, The New York Times
We must move into the post-oil era to improve the health of
the American people and to mitigate climate change.
 http://www.alternet.org/environment/1026…

THE MELTDOWN WE REALLY CAN’T AFFORD
By Kerry Trueman, AlterNet
We are in danger of passing an extremely dangerous tipping
point, with the frightening discovery of massive deposits of
sub-sea methane in the Arctic.
 http://www.alternet.org/water/102351/

SANERI Awarded Southern Africa Regional Secretariat for REEEP

Johannesburg, October 20, 2008.

The South African National Energy Research Institute (SANERI) has been awarded the rights to host the Southern African Regional Secretariat for the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP). REEEP was formed in 2002 at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg as a multilateral partnership, to promote the uptake of renewable energy and energy efficiency, particularly in developing countries and economies in transition. REEEP currently consists of over 260 partners of which 40 are governments.

REEEP has successfully supported over 80 policy, regulatory, business and finance initiatives in developing countries. In Southern Africa, projects have been developed in Zambia, Lesotho, Mozambique and South Africa. REEEP facilitates market conditions in developing countries in order to accelerate deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency through introduction of suitable policies and measures as well as business models and finance facilities.

Regional priorities will be developed by a Regional Steering Committee guided by SANERI for the selection of projects for funding. REEEP’s International Secretariat in Vienna and its Governing Bodies, are responsible for project approval. For the coming year, REEEP will disburse over € 4 million to more than 35 projects across the developing world.

SANERI will take a leadership role in the development of a framework for projects in the region. Regional workshops and an electronic information platform called REEGLE ( http://www.reegle.info )  will contribute to sharing of information and development of regional priorities. The Southern Africa Regional Secretariat will also be responsible for coordinating regional inputs into the strategic direction of REEEP’s international programme of work.

Dr. Marianne Osterkorn, REEEP’s International Director, expressed her support for SANERI: “I am delighted that we are forging a partnership with a national entity of such caliber as SANERI, which has established itself as a major player in the energy R&D sector in South Africa. Moving our Regional Secretariat from Cape Town to Johannesburg will allow REEEP to enhance its significant role in the drive towards global greenhouse gas reduction while supporting the Southern Africa region in its path to sustainable economic development.”

SANERI takes over this responsibility from Agama Energy, an energy consultancy based in Cape Town. The CEO of SANERI, Mr. Kadri Nassiep indicated the significance of this award to the region: “Becoming part of an international partnership that is accelerating the transition to a lower carbon future means taking responsibility for local measures that will build more supportive mechanisms for renewable energy and energy efficiency. SANERI is a key funder of energy R&D in South Africa, and the spin-off benefits of these projects will find their way into the region. It is therefore vital that a strong linkage is developed between technology-driven R&D and policy and regulatory studies that work together to facilitate implementation.”

SANERI takes over responsibilities in October 2008.

For further information on this and related REEEP activities visit the REEP and REEGLE websites www.reeep.org and www.reegle.info. To contact the new secretariat in Johannesburg please email Ms Amanda Luxande at a&