Pan Arab Clean Energy Initiative (PACE)...1st Consultative Expert Workshop – Maghreb Region

As a first step of the “Develop the Pan Arab Clean Energy (PACE)” initiative launched by IRENA in collaboration with RCREEE and other regional players, a stakeholders consultation and expert workshop was held in Tunis on 24 June, 2014 to inform key stakeholders in the region about the current development status of renewable power plants and associated transmission infrastructure in the Maghreb Countries and the opportunities to accelerate deployment of renewable power supply in the region.

The event was co-organized by the IRENA, RCREEE and Tunisian Agency for Energy Conservation (ANME) with participants from main stakeholders in Maghreb countries in charge of RE deployment, regional and international institution such as UN-ESCWA, UNDP, AfDB, AUE, and NEPAD.

After opening remarks by Dr. Mustapha Taoumi of IRENA, Eng. Maged Mahmoud of RCREEE, Mr. Mongi Bida of UNESCWA and Mr. Hamdi Harouch DG of ANME, the workshop agenda included five roundtable discussions, where the fifth and closing roundtable discussions were introduced and moderated by RCREEE experts Ms. Rim BOUKHCHINA, and Eng. Maged Mahmoud, respectively, A fruitful discussion was initiated and allowed to define the outline of the situation in the target countries and to draw the methodology and the next steps of the study.

This initiative comes following the recommendations and initiatives emanating from Pan-Arab Renewable Energy Strategy 2030: Roadmap of Actions for Implementation study, recently launched by IRENA, the League of Arab States and IRENA.