DUSHANBE, July 1, 2016, Asia-Plus — The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization (GEIDCO) have affirmed their commitment to work together to facilitate increased regional cooperation, integration and environmentally sustainable transboundary power interconnection and trade, through a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in Beijing on July1.
According to ESCAP, the MoU will support collaborative activities between the two organizations to promote the concept of global energy interconnection through research and innovation including pre-feasibility studies, pilot projects and the development of institutional mechanisms.
Asia and the Pacific is in the midst of an energy renaissance, witnessing a series of rapid technological advances in clean energy generation, energy storage, power transmission and electric vehicles. However, there remains a great need to facilitate bilateral and multilateral consultation amongst development partners to address common concerns and challenges such as technical, financial and regulatory barriers to transboundary power trade and mapping potential transmission routes.
United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCAP, Dr. Shamshad Akhtar, highlighted that the partnership is particularly timely as the global electricity sector must make simultaneous progress on multiple fronts in order to meet the broader goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
“This MoU between ESCAP and GEIDCO will help achieve these goals, by leveraging the technical capacities of GEIDCO and the knowledge-sharing platforms that ESCAP provides, linking experts and policy-makers from diverse member States,” said Dr. Akhtar. “The MoU, made possible by a shared vision of creating a dynamic, interconnected Asia-Pacific regional electricity grid, will allow for the integration of substantial shares of renewable energy in order to accelerate the energy transitions currently underway.”
As part of the MoU, ESCAP and GEIDCO have also agreed to prepare joint national, sub-regional and regional studies in order to analyze the sustainability of the power sector and the linkages between transboundary power interconnection and trade on a bilateral and multilateral basis.
