This Technology Transfer Advances Zimbabwe's
- Nationally Determined Contribution to focus on energy efficiency improvements and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 33% below the projected Business As Usual scenario by 2030.
Context
Zimbabwe’s energy mix consists of 55% energy from fossil fuel sources (mainly coal) and from 37% from hydroelectric plants. Climate change inhibits the reliability of hydropower as droughts in Zimbabwe increasingly lead to power cuts and intermittency issues. The energy sector of Zimbabwe is the largest contributor to national GHG emissions (60.7%), mainly due to heavy reliance on coal which makes up 46% of electricity generation. To tackle these issues, the government of Zimbabwe has set ambitious targets to achieve 72% (TSP, 2018) electricity access by 2020.
Zimbabwe currently faces critical challenges to achieving market transformation towards energy efficient products including lack of information and awareness, limited labelling of appliances, and an absence of minimum energy performance standards.
The CTCN previously developed detailed country assessments for 9 Southern Africa countries, including Zimbabwe, focusing on five priority products (i.e. lighting, refrigerators, air conditioners, electric motors and distribution transformers). This assistance will help to inform Zimbabwe's future objectives for climate-related policy actions.
CTCN Support
- Validate the data collected by the CTCN from stakeholders (e.g. manufacturers, retailers, suppliers, utilities) on the existing initiatives and use of refrigerators and distribution transformers
- Undertake detailed market assessments and feasibility of implementation of technologies with highest efficiency
- Develop a technology roadmap and action plan for promoting and adoption of efficient appliance in the country
- Propose draft minimum energy performance standards (MEPS) and labelling for refrigerators and procurement specifications for distribution transformers
- Assist decision makers and stakeholders to put the draft MEPS for refrigerators and procurement specifications for distribution transformers into practice
- Gather information on financing lines and business models for financing energy-efficient refrigerators and/or distribution transformers
- Develop proposal for financial/market based mechanism on energy-efficient refrigerators and/or distribution transformers
- Promote effective monitoring and evaluation of CTCN projects as well as capacitating the NDE to carry out its oversight role
- Enable the NDE to build climate technology capacity through exchange programmes, participating in Technology Mechanism negotiations and events
- Enhance the capacity of industries to transition to efficient appliances
Expected Impact
By switching to energy efficient refrigerators and transformers, Zimbabwe can reduce strain on the grid that is currently exacerbated by outages, subsequently increasing grid access. Improved energy efficiency increase will also improve power savings and reduce the quantity of fossil fuel usage across the country.
