IEA holds energy efficiency training week in Singapore

SINGAPORE – The first regional edition of the International Energy Agency’s Energy Efficiency in Emerging Economies Training Week kicked off in Singapore today with 80 participants from 15 countries across Asia-Pacific.

Organized in partnership with Singapore’s Energy Market Authority, the training week is the inaugural event of the Singapore-IEA training hub, which was launched in October 2016 when Singapore became an Associate member of the IEA. Over the coming days, participants will take part in lectures, interactive classes and discussions in four different work streams: buildings; lighting, appliances and equipment; industry; and transport.

The event is the first of three planned regional training weeks this year that underpin the importance of efficiency for the IEA. Last month, the IEA organized a week-long training program in Paris that highlighted the critical role that energy efficiency plays in addressing increased energy demand in emerging economies.  With similar training events held later in the year in Georgia and Rio de Janeiro, more than 500 people from about 70 countries will receive energy efficiency training from the IEA in 2017.

The first session was opened by Ng Wai Choong, Chief Executive of EMA Singapore, and IEA Deputy Executive Director Paul Simons, who focused on the untapped potential of technology to transform the global energy system for a sustainable energy future. Other presentations included an outlook on Southeast Asia by Dr Sanjayan Velautham of the ASEAN Centre of Energy and Singapore’s approach to climate change by Pamela Lee of Singapore’s National Climate Change Secretariat.

Panelists from the IEA will review a variety of topics including the social and economic benefits of energy efficiency, the importance of data for policy makers, as well as detailed training. Participants came from Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, Viet Nam.

The IEA training week is a key activity of the Energy Efficiency in Emerging Economies (E4) Programme, which has been supporting emerging economies in their efforts to scale up and capture the benefits of energy efficiency since the beginning of 2014. It plays an important role in sharing experiences, policies and best-practices on effective energy-efficiency through the IEA’s well-established expertise on data collection, indicators and modelling; energy-efficiency policy design, implementation and evaluation; and training and capacity building.