Lecture:
Case study and report on climate change and energy efficiency
17:00h
Day seven, Thursday 15 September
Hrvatski dom Herceg Stjepan Kosaca, Mostar

 

Alisa Grabus was born on February 28th 1975 in Jajce, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Education for Technician of Electro Energetic finalized in B&H and education for Physikalisch Technische Assistentin finalized on the Berufskolleg in Germany. Faculty Diploma in Economy obtained in B&H.
The knowledge of mother tongue Bosnian, other languages of FY, English and German language represent excellent instrument in a daily work and life routine.
Since 1998 actively engaged in different projects related to sustainable development, disaster risk reduction and disaster preparedness, energy and environment of countries in Balkan region (B&H, Montenegro and Kosovo) and South East Asia (Pakistan).
2010 joined UNDP and since then working as Project Officer for Environmental Funding and Planning on the project Mainstreaming Environmental Governance: Linking Local and National Action in B&H.
The responsibilities and activities of this engagement are related to identification and implementation of projects whose aim is to contribute to sustainable intervention in the field of energy efficiency, renewable energy sources and implementation of energy information management system.

Energy efficiency in public building sector in B&H
While global and regional initiatives and trends in field of environmental protection and climate change are more and more focusing on energy efficiency situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in this regard is unfortunately still not improving and there is very little progress on these issues.
Latest studies and analyzes show that energy consumption in the building sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina (residential, public and commercial buildings) is at a rate of 57% of the final energy consumption, while in the EU this rate is as low as 40%. International experience shows that energy efficiency improvements in buildings can save up to 30% of energy and it is safe to assume that in BiH the energy saving potential is even bigger. Based on the scarce data available, estimation is that BiH suffers significant economic and environmental losses because of the low energy efficiency in both private residential buildings and in public sector managed buildings and facilities, which in average have significant expenditures for heating, water, air conditioning, lighting, etc. At the same time citizens and decision makers are not even nearly sufficiently aware, neither are equipped to control or manage these costs. If we take into consideration the low GDP of BiH, such inefficient use of energy runs directly against the countries’ poverty reduction efforts.
Considering that prices of energy in country are treated as social welfare issue and still are heavily subsidized, combined with lack of individual metering of energy consumption in most of residential sector, at this moment citizens have very little economic incentive to invest in energy efficiency of their dwellings. On the other side, energy prices for legal persons, which includes public sector, are much higher, they as big consumers usually have individual energy metering and pay actual costs of energy consumed.
Due to all of these reasons, plus the fact that any savings achieved in public sector will help ease pressures on public budgets, that savings in public expenditures benefits the whole community and enables for increased social transfer to the poorest, UNDP BiH has in close consultations with national and international stakeholders in BiH (including USAID, GTZ, Norsk Energy, etc.) decided to take lead in action on promotion and institutionalizing of innovative approaches and initiates in field of energy efficiency and effective energy management of public buildings.
Considering all the above mentioned UNDP is, as part of wider efforts on promotion of energy efficiency in Bosnia and Herzegovina, implementing a 1 million USD worth support programme, targeted at identifying and supporting a number of innovative pilot projects in the field of energy efficiency and renewable energy sources in public sector buildings.
Primary goal is to practically demonstrate benefits of applying EU energy efficiency standards and modern energy management practices in public buildings to institutions, local authorities, individual users and relevant stakeholders. In that way the projects will also directly contribute to development of capacities among local and national stakeholders in the fields of environmental protection, energy efficiency and renewable energy sources.
Focus on public sector buildings, which include schools, universities, health facilities, administrative buildings, cultural heritage sites, public light systems and other, represents also the largest potential for the reduction of Green House Gases (GHGs) as energy sector participated with 74% in the total countries’ GHG emissions in the Kyoto baseline year, thus helping country to meet its international climate change obligations and achieve significant economic benefits for country, public sector and individuals.
By implementing the planned set of pilot energy efficiency projects, by end of 2011, UNDP will in coordination with its partners be able to present to BiH public and authorities a portfolio of 10-15 completed energy efficiency pilot projects such as introduction of renewable energy sources, fuel switch of heating systems from fossils fuels to biomass, introduction of LED technologies, etc.. The project will be diversified both in terms of type of public buildings/facilities they target, as well as geographically to cover the biggest cities and towns throughout the country, thus effectively reaching out to largest part of BiH population.
The projects will clearly demonstrate added value of investing in energy efficiency. Its environmental and financial results will be carefully recorded and compared with baseline data that is being collected too. This will enable us to both clearly measure and calculate benefits of each of the individual projects as well as to estimate more accurately the gross potential for energy saving in other similar buildings and facilities in BiH.