GNESD: Global Network to Help Link Energy and Sustainable Development

UNEP has helped launch a Global Network on Energy for Sustainable Development as a so-called 'Type II' initiative of the World Summit on Sustainable Development. Core partners in the Network are out-standing energy centres in industrialised and developing countries with proven experience and success in advancing knowledge and policies on various energy issues.

Network partners will help promote the research, transfer and take-up of green and cleaner energy technologies to the developing world. The Network will achieve this by strengthening collaboration between existing "centres of excellence", and work through these centres to influence sustainable energy policies, strategies and programmes.

The creation of GNESD is in line with the G8 Renewable Energy Task Force Report (2001) which recommended that its member countries "expand support for assistance programmes and networks for capacity building" to help promote the policy shift towards sustainable energy solutions.

The list of energy centres includes, for example, the Tata Energy Reseach Institute (TERI) in India, the African Energy Policy Research Network (Kenya), the Bariloche Foundation (Argentina), ENDA Tiers Monde (Senegal), and the Energy Research and Development Centre (EDRC) in South Africa.

The energy centres are joined in the Network by international organisations, governments, financial institutions, private sector representatives, foundations, and other parties who share the goal of promoting energy for sustainable development.

For more information visit the Global Network on Energy for Sustainable Development website.