LONDON: The COP22 climate conference, held in Marrakech earlier this month, marked a transition from high-level commitments to concrete actions to tackle the effects of climate change quickly, effectively and at scale. Accelerating adoption of Energy Efficiency (EE) technologies, and LED lighting in particular, have been identified as key elements in achieving the ambitious commitments under the Paris Agreement and transitioning to a low carbon global economy.

A series of key events during COP22, which was held from November 7-18, helped to further highlight the opportunities, as well as the remaining challenges, in scaling up EE technologies, and in particular LED lighting. The first such event ‘What do Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) need to succeed? Energy Efficiency’ was organized by the United Nations Environment Programme’s United for Efficiency project, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and the International Partnership for Energy Efficiency Cooperation (IPEEC) on November 12.

The event highlighted how EE is the most sustainable, cost-effective, and accessible way of reducing carbon emissions whilst providing a wide a range of other social and environmental co-benefits. However, although many countries NDCs mention energy efficiency, they generally lack clear strategies and commitments on how to practically achieve the targets. By raising the profile of this issue, the session presented specific examples where governments and industry organizations have collaborated to successfully implement energy efficiency strategies for appliances and lighting systems.

Particularly in Africa, adoption of energy efficient lighting solutions both for grid connected as well as off-grid applications is key.  Energy efficient lighting for Africa and beyond, an event run by UNEP and the Clean Energy Ministerial, highlighted the crucial role and potential for new policies to drive the transition to LEDs throughout Africa and save over 60 TWh annually by 2030, equivalent to thirty 500MW power plants. Additional benefits also include increased grid stability and the potential of connecting 20 million additional households with the electricity grid.

Read more (The Climate Group)