Energy Efficiency Centres in Russia

situation where many politically active and critical Russian NGOs experience different types of hardship.

3.5 Capacity-Building on Joint Implementation for Energy Efficiency Centres in Russia

# Institutions involved and funding. The project was coordinated by Norsk Energi – and the project director was Gabriella Samuelsson. It also included an additional Norwegian partner, ECON Analysis, which contributed with expertise for the workshop session. These institutions carried out the training programme. At the Russian side they collaborated with the Regional Energy Efficiency Centres (REECs) in Arkhangelsk, Petrozavodsk, Murmansk and Komi. The REECs are centres of expertise that provide technical assistance on energy and environmental matters to local actors in the region. The project was carried out in the first half year of 2006. The project mainly received funding from the Nordic Council of Ministers. Funding from the Barents Secretariat was 100,000 NOK and was earmarked for providing all Russian participants free transportation and accommodation and for imbursement of participation for the REECs. Background. In February 2005, the Russian Federation adopted an Integrated Action Plan for the Implementation of the Kyoto Protocol. Having worked on, and succeeded in, the establishment of REES in NW-Russia over a number of years, Norsk Energi took the initiative to build on this collaboration to carry out capacity building courses on Joint Implementation (JI) for REECs and municipal and industrial stakeholders in NW-Russia. The development of energy efficiency and cleaner production projects, which are prime candidates for development into JI projects, had already been an integral part of the capacity building process. The REEC, having close contacts with the regional administrations and industries, were considered to be actors that could play a very central role in the identification and developing of JI-projects in the future. The Nordic Council of Ministers (NMR) sponsored such a capacity building project during 2006. In order to increase the participation of local stakeholders at the workshops, Norsk Energi applied to the Barents Secretariat for additional funding for

travel and accommodation, which based on experience, could be a major barrier to participation. Objectives. The objective of the training programme was to strengthen the local capacity for developing and implementing JI projects in Northwest Russia. The ultimate goal of the project was to facilitate successfully implemented projects which would result in a larger reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Each seminar and workshop had a specific objective supporting the major objective of the project. The intervention. In order to reach the objective the project team carried out a series of capacity building courses on JI for REECs and municipal and industrial stakeholders in NW-Russia. Representation was to be ensured from all regions of NW Russia, in order to allow for the information to be disseminated to a wider audience. The activities consisted in three information seminars in which an introduction was given to the Kyoto Protocol and the flexible mechanisms, as well as information about the training programme and who should and could participate. The seminars furthermore discussed criteria that had to be met by projects and which projects that could benefit from the JI mechanism. The first workshops informed the participants about the JI project cycle and discussed what was expected from the project participants in regard to the development of a JI project. The second workshop discussed how to set the baseline and monitoring plan, what should be included in the boundary and what could be considered as leakages. Finally, in the third workshop the project participants presented their individual projects, and they received feedback from the organizers and other participants. Results

a) Output: The three seminars and three workshops were organised according to the plan. Participants were present from all regions of NW Russia. The REECs were responsible for inviting relevant stakeholders to each seminar. They were also responsible for the practical arrangements of the seminars. A very similar agenda was used in all the three seminars, mostly with input from the Norwegian partners. Workshops were then held in the two locations where the interest for the project was the largest (Petrozavodsk and Arkhangelsk).

Participants from Murmansk travelled to Petrozavodsk, which had the highest number of participants. The number of participants from Arkhangelsk was lower than anticipated, explained by the organisers as due to time constraints. In between the workshops the participants had homework, and needed to present their project for the following workshop. They were developed from Project Note Ideas to Project Design Documents (PDD). The third workshop took place in Petrozavodsk in which participants from the workshops in the two locations met for the first time, and in which buyers from a variety of countries, including the Nordic, were participating in order to link buyers to sellers.

b) Outcome: The interest from both the regional administrations and the industry was large. To ensure success it was important to have participants from both the industries, local administrations and NGOs. This goal was met. Despite the barrier to finding suitable JI projects in the region due to the low number of large-scale projects, the partners were able to identify relevant participants. High travelling costs and time constraints prevented some participants from the more remote regions from participating. A number of relevant project ideas were identified in the workshops. The motivation from the participants was high, resulting in the project surpassing its target by developing 13 JI projects that were developed and documented in an English standardized format. This was higher than the initial goal of 3-4 projects in each region. This must be considered a good result since the funding was smaller than usual for similar projects in Russia.

Another indicator of success is the large number of buyers that attended the third workshop and showed an interest in the projects. c) Impact: The interest in the programme from the Russians is reflected in the high participation and success rate of the projects that were identified. Awareness and knowledge were raised through the capacity building programme. The impact was particularly great in Petrozavodsk, where the awareness of JI was

generally lower at the outset both among the participants from the industry and the municipalities, resulting in a steeper learning process. The more long-term impact, however, is hard to monitor, as the project was a one-time event and there is no systematic follow-up on the next phases of the projects. Continuation of the project activities. Norsk Energi is still active in Russia, and has a long-term strategy to follow up the project activities. One example of a direct follow-up of the project activities is that Norsk Energi a short time after the JI project was engaged by one of the carbon credit buyers, NEFCO, to further develop the fuel convention project Zheshart in the Komi Republic towards a Project Development Document (PDD). However, also others among the concrete projects that developed as a result of the project are still running. Moreover, the NWRussian REECs have developed their capacity to act on their own without the competence transfer from Norway. Discussion. The project was very concrete in terms of objectives and criteria for success. The project team managed to reach the majority of targets, and as such must be considered a success. However, the number of participants in Arkhangelsk was lower than had been anticipated, and according to the organisers this was due to time constraints.

There are a number of challenges in the implementation of a project like this in the Russian setting. One barrier is the bureaucracy and lengthy process of developing JI projects in Russia. The lack of national JI procedures and the uncertainty it creates also creates a barrier, as project owners tend to view JI somewhat sceptically. Many are hesitant to get involved in the JI process. Project owners often see big hurdles and up-front costs instead of future possibilities and benefits. There is lack of transparency in the process as well. Lack of guidance from the Russian government is an additional complicating factor. The organisers were well aware of these barriers, however, and tried to accommodate them to their best ability into the programme. After the project is finished, there has been no systematic followup or even information gathering from the side of the organisers as to how the projects have developed. Long-term effects are therefore harder to monitor. Some projects appear to have been