7 December 2015: The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Global Environment Facility’s (GEF) United for Efficiency (U4E) initiative and its lighting chapter, en.lighten, announced exciting new projects during Energy Day of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21). The partnership includes the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the International Copper Association (ICA), the environmental and energy‐efficiency NGO CLASP, and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). The partnership also includes the private sector partners of ABB, Arçelik, BSH Hausgeräte GmbH, Electrolux, MABE, OSRAM, Philips, and Whirlpool Corporation.

The following announcements of projects, assessments, and new global initiatives were made during several events at Energy Day (7 December) at COP21 in Paris:

• Approval of GEF programs and projects on energy‐efficient lighting, appliances, and equipment: The announcement includes global funding for U4E to support national/regional implementation of energy‐efficiency policies, actions, and projects. Further, national projects were announced for Costa Rica (lighting, refrigerators, and air conditioners), Kazakhstan (domestic appliances, and Sudan (lighting and air conditioners). The projects will be implemented with country partners, UNEP, UNDP and support from U4E private and public sector partners.
• Release of the U4E country assessments: The country assessments show the large financial, environmental, and energy benefits the transition to energy‐efficient lighting, refrigerators, air conditioners, electric motors, and distribution transformers can deliver. The assessments are available for approximately 100 countries in Latin America, West Africa, Southern Africa, Middle East and North Africa, Southeast Asia, and South Asia. The assessments can be downloaded on the U4E website.
• New street lighting assessments and guidance: UNEP en.lighten initiative, les Eco Maires, the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME), Philips Lighting France, Osram France, Sunna Design, World Bank, IEA 4E SSL Annex and the Climate Group released a guidance note and city lighting assessments on approximately 30 French cities, showing the potential financial, GHG, and energy savings of transitioning to LED street lighting. It is estimated that LED street lighting can result in energy savings 40 – 70 percent higher compared to traditional lighting technologies, and their maintenance costs are close to zero due their very long lifetimes.
• Launch of the Global Lighting Challenge: Led by the Clean Energy Ministerial and UNEP through its en.lighten initiative, the Global Lighting Challenge was launched to begin a race to reach cumulative global sales of 10 billion high‐efficiency, high‐quality and affordable advanced lighting products, such as light‐emitting diode (LED) lamps. The Challenge is seeking additional commitments from public‐ and private‐sector leaders to accelerate the 10 billion goal.

Statements from United for Efficiency partners:

• “OSRAM is a proud founding partner of the UNEP and GEF public‐private partnership the en.lighten‐initiative. Since 2010, we have been helping countries to accelerate their transition to energy efficient lighting. Today, lighting is sustainable, innovative, efficient and intelligent, and OSRAM has been around in the world of lighting for more than 100 years. Efficient lighting saves energy. And sustainable lighting conserves resources. This has never been more important than today since it fights the climate change. And when countries leapfrog to advanced LEDs and intelligent lighting systems, the energy savings become even higher. UNEP estimates that if all light sources were switched overnight to LED lighting, global electricity consumption would be reduced by half, resulting in 735 Mt of CO2 emission reduction. That is almost equivalent to the total emissions of Germany.” – Dr. Eladia Pulido, CEO, Osram Lighting Solutions
• “The world is increasing its consumption of energy twice faster than it improves energy efficiency. This is simply not sustainable nor economical. We need to step up our efforts and double the rate of energy efficiency improvement to at least 3% per year. This is key in preventing a potentially catastrophic rise in global temperatures. Faster adoption of LED lighting that can save up to 80% of energy, and a drive to renovate existing city infrastructure and greater use of solar‐powered LED lighting would have a huge impact.” – Eric Rondolat, CEO, Philips Lighting
• “ABB is proud to partner with U4E in its effort to advance energy‐efficient products, systems, software and service that can make a significant contribution to mitigating the impact of global climate‐change. The global energy losses in distribution transformers are of the same magnitude as the current electrical energy demand across the African continent. Efficient distribution transformers alone can reduce up to 70‐80% of these losses. Energy efficiency regulations within the electrical infrastructure, can play a key role and this requires clear and efficient policy decisions in order to minimize environmental impact and act with a sense of urgency. In addition to technology support, ABB is providing expertise, via the U4E initiative, to assist nations in developing these energy‐efficient specifications”. – ABB
• “With the stock of refrigerators expected to more than double by 2030 in developing countries and emerging economies, refrigerators offer a high impact opportunity to both reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save consumers on their electricity bills. Arçelik shares United for Efficiency’s goal in supporting countries in achieving these benefits by implementing an integrated policy framework that advances energy efficient products. Arçelik has a strong history of being a market leader in manufacturing energy efficient appliances and investing in R&D studies to design better energy efficient appliances for more than 20 years. Arçelik is very delighted to share this technical expertise with U4E and its partner countries to ensure best practice policies and projects are implemented.”
  – Fatih Özkadı, Senior Director for Sustainability and Corporate Affairs, ARÇELİK A.Ş.
• “Energy Efficiency offers one of the best, most realistic opportunities for limiting the effects of manmade climate change. United for Efficiency showcases the global push to high‐efficiency products, which are both technically and economically available today. These products would not only contribute to the commitments under a global climate change agreement, they would also result in benefits such as reduced customer electricity bills and increasing stability of the electricity grids in areas that are currently undergoing energy crises.” – Anthony Lea, CEO, International Copper Association

Background on United for Efficiency: The Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) initiative, led by UN Secretary‐General and the President of the World Bank, has as one of its three objectives for 2030 a doubling of the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency. The Global Energy Efficiency Accelerator Platform was established to help reach this objective, with Accelerators on Lighting and Appliances & Equipment. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Global Environment Facility’s (GEF) United for Efficiency (U4E) initiative is a key project under SE4ALL, which supports developing countries and emerging economies to transition their market to energy‐efficient products through an integrated policy approach. U4E builds upon it lighting chapter, the en.lighten initiative, which succeeded in obtaining the commitment from 66 countries to accelerate their transition to energy‐efficient lighting.