UN HABITAT’s Mandate and Work on Urban Energy

The Habitat Agenda is the main political document that came out of the Habitat II conference in Istanbul ( Turkey) 3 to 14 June 1996. Adopted by 171 countries, at what was called the City Summit it contains over 100 commitments and 600 recommendations on human settlements issues.

Chapter C.6 on the "Sustainable Use of Energy" sets the following:

145. The use of energy is essential in urban centres for transportation, industrial production, and household and office activities. Current dependence in most urban centres on non-renewable energy sources can lead to climate change, air pollution and consequent environmental and human health problems, and may represent a serious threat to sustainable development. Sustainable energy production and use can be enhanced by encouraging energy efficiency, by such means as pricing policies, fuel switching, alternative energy, mass transit and public awareness. Human settlements and energy policies should be actively coordinated.

Actions

146. In order to promote efficient and sustainable energy use, Governments at the appropriate levels, in partnership with the private sector, non-governmental organizations, community-based organizations and consumer groups, should, as appropriate:

1. Promote urban and rural planning and design solutions that are conducive to the efficient use of energy and that pay due attention to end users and their attitudes and practices;
2. Introduce appropriate measures to promote the use of renewable and safe sources of energy and to improve the efficiency of energy use in human settlements, while ensuring that people living in poverty and their families are not disadvantaged;
3. Promote energy-efficient systems, for example, by introducing or supporting innovative energy-efficient measures in the generation, distribution and use of energy, such as combined heating and cooling systems that utilize waste heat recovery, and co-generation of heating and electricity;
4. Encourage research, development and use of non-motorized or low-energy transport systems and the use of renewable energy sources and technologies, such as solar, wind and biomass energy;
5. Encourage countries, in particular developing countries, to cooperate in exchanging knowledge, experience and know-how in the phasing out of lead gasoline, through, inter alia, the use of biomass ethanol as an environmentally sound substitute;
6. Introduce or amend user charges and/or other measures to promote the efficient use of household energy;
7. Stimulate, through fiscal incentives or other measures, and adopt energy-efficient and environmentally sound technologies in the rehabilitation of existing industries and services and in the construction of new ones;
8. Support programmes for the reduction and neutralization of emissions of polluting gases originating in the generation, transportation and use of energy;
9. Encourage and promote public education and media campaigns to encourage recycling, reuse and reduced energy consumption;
10. Encourage the use of solar heating and cooling and electric technologies, energy efficient design, ventilation and improved insulation of buildings to reduce the consumption of energy in buildings;
11. Encourage the use of safe industrial and agricultural waste products and other types of low-energy and recycled building materials in construction;
12. Encourage and promote the development and dissemination of new and environmentally sound technologies, including the reduction of metal compounds as part of transportation fuels, and good practices in the use of energy.

In UN-HABITAT’s efforts to achieve target 11, Goal 7 of the Millennium Declaration, which seeks to improve the lives of 100 million slum dwellers, energy plays an important role. Slums account for unsustainable uses of energy: for example, without the infrastructure for gas lines, charcoal and/or other biomass becomes the primary source of cooking fuel, further propagating deforestation. Further, the lack of public lighting in dense slums contributes to high levels of crime. Here, a strong case can be made for introducing effective solar power use in slums. Numerous other technologies would serve the purpose of further introducing the integration of Renewable Energies into Slum Upgrading programmes, at low costs with high returns.

To effectively address the sustainability considerations in the area of energy and urban environment as outlined in Chapters 7 and 9 of Agenda 21, UN-Habitat is piloting demonstration projects in the areas of Sustainable Energy production and Use for Urban Households; Capturing Energy from Urban Waste; and Mitigating Measures for GHG Emissions Reductions.

Our Work

The Urban Energy Section as a unit within UN HABITAT’s Water Sanitation and Infrastructure Branch (WSIB) has been created in July 2009. In the second half of 2009 and in the course of 2010 various projects and activities were developed, unfolding an energy related portfolio, which today has mainly three Focus Areas:

• Increasing the access to modern, clean, reliable and sustainable energy services, mainly to the urban poor,
• Promoting Energy Efficiency (EE) in urban areas.
• Promoting the use of Renewable Energy Technologies (RET) in urban areas,

In line with these focus areas and in consolidating and documenting of ongoing activities, the Urban Energy Section will develop energy related products and service packages in 2011, which are of potential interest for our clients and partners, i.e. local government units, cities, towns, municipalities, but also private sector and civil society organizations, national governments and regional political organizations. All products will be designed as sustainable solutions to existing energy problems, and will include components for fostering related job-creation. Subsequently, all products will also promote the green economy, as all new jobs will also be “green”.

The programmatic focus of the work of the Urban Energy Section in 2011 will be in consolidating and documenting ongoing activities.

Currently the following products are in the process of being developed:

• Clean Energy Centers (CEC) , i.e. local energy service centres comprising a multitude of renewable energy use forms, including biogas-sanitation, clean water provision, solar lantern charging (off-grid lighting), cell-phone charging, security lighting for the area, communal kitchen (using biogas), computer pool/IT and multifunctional meeting rooms, etc. CEC can help to increase the access to energy services in such areas, where inhabitants have limited access, only.
• Energy Efficiency in Buildings (EEB) , i.e. an integrated service package promoting EEB by focusing benchmarking, building codes, regulations and municipal by-laws, awareness raising, appropriate financial mechanisms, as well as demonstration projects.
• Micro-generation and building integrated RET , i.e. the use of micro- or small-scale applications of RET in urban areas, including technological, regulatory, financial and social/cultural questions.

Ongoing activities of the Urban Energy Section will allow the development and formulation of these products in the course of 2011 and will also indicate a demand for additional products and service packages within the energy related focus areas described above. Lessons learnt from activities will be documented and published accordingly.

Under the energy related Focus Area (i), access to energy:

• UN Energy Africa (UNEA) , UN HABITAT is the current chair of UNEA, which seeks to promote coherence, effectiveness and synergy in the UN system's multi-disciplinary response to WSSD/JPOI implementation in Africa, to promote interaction and collaboration with non-UN stakeholders in energy sector, to provide support to NEPAD Energy Initiatives, and to foster collaboration with other major African governmental or non-governmental initiatives and programs. The UES especially seeks to promote the access to energy on the continent.
• Clean Energy Centres , the UES will develop advocacy and training material to promote CEC as outlined above.

Under the energy related Focus Area (ii), energy efficiency:

• Promoting Energy Efficiency in Buildings in East Africa is a full-sized GEF project developed in cooperation with UNEP and submitted under GEF 4. This project constitutes a regional approach including all member states of the East African Community (EAC) and has the objective to mainstream EE measures into housing policies, building codes and building practices in East Africa, and to achieve considerable avoidance of GHG emissions as a result of improved building practice. UN HABITAT is executing agency for this 4 years project.

Under the energy related Focus Area (iii), renewable energies:

• Pilot Renewable Energy Projects to Enhance Water and Sanitation Services in Selected African Cities and Secondary Towns , the project has the objective to enhance water and sanitation services in selected African cities and secondary towns for the particular benefit of the urban poor currently facing deplorable sanitation conditions, using locally available renewable and clean energy sources. This project also includes the development of several pilot CECs. The geographical scope includes East Africa ( Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda), Southern Africa ( Malawi), Central Africa ( Central Africa Republic and Cameroon), and West Africa ( Sierra Leone and Mali).

A number of new activities and projects will be developed in 2011, including:

• Training Program and Training Manuals for EEB, Lesotho , will provide capacity building and training to parties and stakeholders in the Kingdom of Lesotho in order to promote EEB in the country.
• Energy Efficient Affordable Housing will be a policy paper developed and presented at the RIO+20 summit summarizing existing experiences within UN HABITAT and describing the EE component of governmental driven affordable housing programs.
• Assessing opportunities of power generation through decentralized Renewable Energy Technologies (Micro-generation) in urban areas of Kenya will be a policy paper developed in collaboration with the German Development Cooperation (GIZ).
• Income Generation through Valorisation and Energetic Utilization of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) will be developed in cooperation with local partners from the private sector in Kenya and Tanzania. The two components will focus on recycling the biggest and currently not utilized fractions of MSW, i.e. organic waste ( Kenya) and light packaging materials ( Tanzania). This pilot project will particular benefit the Informal Waste Sector (waste pickers) and will also promote resource efficiency by utilizing MSW.