The economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) organized in collaboration with the Regional Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (RCREEE), the Tunisian Agency for Energy Conservation (ANME) and the Energy Department of the League of Arab States (ED LAS), a regional policy seminar focusing on policy reforms to promote the financing of energy efficiency investments.
The Seminar was held in Tunisia on the 14th and 15th of April, 2014. It tackled policy reforms that can promote financing of energy efficiency investments with the aim of strengthening the capacity of national and local policymakers in the region.
During the 2 days seminar, speakers presented regional and national initiatives and experiences conducted to promote EE programs and existing financing opportunities dedicated to sustainable development. The event was also an opportunity to highlight the Tunisian experience and to present success stories of EE applications at regional level such as : EE in industrial sector in Tunisia, EE in transport sector in Egypt and EE in building sector in Kuwait. RCREEE Senior Planning Advisor, Mrs. Amel Bida presented the "Case studies and lessons learnt of policies that promot EE investments in the Region" while RCREEE Head of Projects and Technical Affairs , Eng. Maged Mahmoud, moderated the event second session.
Finally, participants discussed required (desirable) changes to existing policy/legal/regulatory and institutional frameworks and propose a set of recommendations leading to a more favourable investment climate for the EE projects.