1 November 2012: The Frankfurt School – UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Collaborating Centre for Climate and Sustainable Energy has released its inaugural newsletter. The newsletter includes articles on: the Sustainable Energy and Energy Efficiency Intermediary Loan Programme; sustainable energy planning activities in Eastern Europe and the Southern Caucasus; and the German-funded Finance for Access to Clean Energy Technologies (FACET) project.

The newsletter indicates that the Sustainable Energy and Energy Efficiency Intermediary Loan Programme is a joint initiative between the Government of China, l’Agence Française de Développement (AFD), and the French Global Environmental Fund (FGEF). Executed between 2007-2010, the Programme aimed to catalyze funding for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects by making subsidized loans and providing technical assistance, training and capacity building. The Centre is completing an ex-post evaluation of the Loan Programme to assess its performance, identify good practices and lessons learned, and advise on the future sustainability of similar AFD programmes in China.

The newsletter also profiles the Centre’s work on providing capacity building activities in the Ukraine, Moldova and Azerbaijan on sustainable energy planning. According to the newsletter, the workshops target representatives from municipalities, executives and managers working in housing, transport and energy management, and provide training in energy efficiency, renewable energy and climate change.

Also featured in the newsletter is an article on the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) appointment of UNEP and the Centre to head up the End-user Finance for Access to Clean Energy Technologies (FACET) project in South and Southeast Asia. The project aims to stimulate and scale up domestic bank lending to end-users of small-scale clean energy technologies, thereby creating access to energy and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. [Publication: Frankfurt School Newsletter, November 2012, Volume 1]