A meeting of the Council of the United Nations Development Program "De-Risking and Scaling-Up Investment in Energy Efficient Building Retrofits - Armenia" and the Green Climate Fund Program (UNDP-CCF) took place today.
The meeting of the Council was attended by Minister of Environment Hakob Simidyan (Co-Chair of the program Council), UNDP Permanent Representative in Armenia Natia Natsvlishvili (Co-Chair of the program Council), Deputy Minister Gayane Gabrielyan, Yerevan Mayor Hrachya Sargsyan and members of the Council from interested departments.
Prior to the meeting, the amended composition and agenda of the Program Council were approved.
Minister of Environment Hakob Simidyan made an introductory speech.
In his speech, the Minister touched upon the importance of the program for the Republic of Armenia.
"The Government in 2021-2026 program emphasizes the importance of harmonization of environmental protection, economic development and social protection. This approach fully reflects measures to promote energy efficiency, whether in buildings, transport, industry and agriculture," the minister said.
The Minister also touched upon the impact of the implementation of the program on the effectiveness of the fulfillment of the commitments undertaken by the Republic of Armenia under the Paris Agreement.
"Within the framework of the Paris Agreement and the Comprehensive and Expanded Partnership Agreement between the Republic of Armenia and the European Union, energy efficiency issues are extremely important. The environmental goal of this program is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions generated in buildings from energy consumption, which is 37% of the energy consumed in the Republic of Armenia., this also corresponds to the increase in the energy independence of our country and the policy of preserving the construction fund," the minister said.
Speeches were also made by the Permanent Representative of UNDP in Armenia, Natia Natsvlishvili, Yerevan Mayor Hrachya Sargsyan, the head of the UNDP-TSU program, Vahram Jalalyan, who presented a report on the progress of the program for 2022 and upcoming actions, existing problems, challenges and obstacles, as well as the chief specialist of the Program implementation and Monitoring Department of the state institution "Implementation Office environmental programs", Armen Ajamoghlian, responsible for the 1st component of the program, followed by an extended discussion.
During the discussion, the Minister again stressed the importance of coordinating work with the public, on which the effectiveness of the program largely depends.
In total, with the assistance and co-financing of the program, about 140 buildings were modernized, of which 98 are residential and 42 are public.
Taking 2021 as a basis, at the suggestion of the program council, UNDP applied to the green climate fund to extend the validity of the program for 36 months.
At the end of the meeting, the Minister called on partner agencies to further strengthen cooperation with the program, contributing to the full inclusion of energy efficiency measures in the reconstruction of public buildings, thereby serving the environmental agenda.