The past two decades witnessed the development of several renewable energy technologies, some of which have already been applied in different areas. The use of renewable energy technologies for meeting the energy needs of rural and remote areas adds a push to the achievement of two Millennium Development Goals: 1 "Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger" and 7 "Ensure Environmental Sustainability".

 

The UN-ESCWA region is endowed with abundant renewable energy sources, especially solar, wind and biofuels energy. Member countries have exerted varying efforts to conduct inventories and assessments of their renewable energy sources, and to improve the use of renewable energy technologies.

 

However, despite the achievement of some successes in this domain, including large-scale electricity production from solar and wind energy, renewable energy applications in the Arab region remain limited, and have not been extensively used in order to fill the existing gap in energy services.

 

In this context, and in collaboration with the Lebanese Solar Energy Society (LSES), UN-ESCWA is organizing an Expert Group Meeting on "Best Practices and Measures for Promoting Renewable Energy Applications in ESCWA Region", on 3 and 4 February 2009 in Beirut. Back to back with the meeting, the UN-ESCWA Committee on Energy will convene its seventh session on 5-6 February.

 

 

Picture copyright: Ahmad S. Qader