ESMAP Organizes Knowledge Exchange Forum for Partner Agencies

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ESMAP has organized an annual Knowledge Exchange Forum in Washington DC since 2010.
While this event has drawn many participants from client countries and the World Bank, there was consensus in ESMAP’s Consultative Group of donors that a focused event was needed for in-depth engagement between ESMAP and development partners in Europe.

December 03 2012

ESMAP held a Knowledge Exchange Forum with European bilateral development agencies in in Paris on November 27-28, 2012. The event was hosted by Agence Française de Développement (AFD) at their headquarters.

This consultative meeting with was organized by ESMAP to brief staff from bilateral agencies on ESMAP’s activities and to share experiences from their respective programs. More than 30 technical experts from European agencies attended, with participants coming from Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Iceland, Norway, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the European Union.

ESMAP has organized an annual Knowledge Exchange Forum in Washington DC since 2010. While this event has drawn many participants from client countries and the World Bank, there was consensus in ESMAP’s Consultative Group of donors that a focused event was needed for in-depth engagement between ESMAP and development partners in Europe.

The forum included sessions on renewable energy resource mapping, scaling up geothermal energy in developing countries, results-based financing for energy projects, energy access in Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Sustainable Energy for All initiative (SE4All). Download full outline of sessions and presentations.

Participants were also given a broad overview of ESMAP’s low carbon development tools: META, EFFECT, MACTool and TRACE. META helps countries assess electricity supply options; EFFECT builds development scenarios and forecasts their impact on greenhouse gas emissions; MACTool identifies the marginal abatement costs associated with different climate change mitigation interventions; and TRACE assesses energy efficiency opportunities at the city level.

ESMAP provided an update on the implementation of its new initiative on renewable energy mapping. Participants learned about the opportunities for countries to develop meso-scale maps that combine satellite-based imaging and ground-based measurements with geospatial analysis. The geothermal session presented ESMAP’s Global Geothermal Development Plan, which seeks to mobilize concessional funding for the test drilling phase of the geothermal value chain. This session also touched on the World Bank’s compact with the Government of Iceland to scale up the deployment of geothermal energy in Africa’s Rift Valley.

The second day of the forum focused on a hands-on technical demonstration of TRACE, which is currently being deployed in 15 cities worldwide, including in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Southern Europe. Tamar Frangishvili, a representative of the City of Tbilisi, Georgia, highlighted how the tool has helped city officials to identify key sectors for energy efficiency improvements, and how TRACE has been used to support a more comprehensive city development strategy.

Participants expressed appreciation for the forum and many said they would be interested in more informal knowledge exchange events as well as systematic sharing of information between ESMAP and partners in the future.

The next ESMAP Knowledge Exchange Forum will be held in conjunction with the World Bank’s Energy Days in February-March 2013.

Outline of Sessions and Links to Presentations

For more information, please contact us: esmap@worldbank.org

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