About UNIDO and BEE
The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) promotes inclusive and sustainable industrial development (ISID) to assist industries of developing countries and economies in transition. In India, UNIDO has extensively cooperated with different government agencies to develop policies and institutional frameworks to support entrepreneurship development and has strong partnerships with various industrial and enterprise associations. Since 2011, UNIDO with the support of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) has been successfully implementing cleantech innovation projects in many partner countries, including India.
The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), under the Ministry of Power, drives policy development and implements strategies and programmes to achieve efficient end-use of energy across the sectors of India’s economy. In the Paris Climate Agreement, the Government of India has communicated that its Nationally Determined Contribution is to reduce the emissions intensity of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 33 to 35 per cent by 2030 from the 2005 level. The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) created under the Energy Conservation Act, 2001 has the primary responsibility of reducing the energy intensity of the Indian economy. The BEE estimates untapped potential exists in the industrial, commercial, and agricultural sectors.
About FLCTD Project
The Facility for Low Carbon Technology Deployment (FLCTD) (www.low-carbon-innovation.org) is a 10-year project that aims to identify innovative energy efficiency and low carbon technology solutions that address the existing technology gaps in Indian industrial and commercial sectors. Towards achieving this objective, the project has two main components:
Capacity-building program on Technology transfer offices and practitioners by developing a high-quality foundational program by engaging national and international experts.
- Development of an awards methodology to identify and select competitive technology innovations: The project has developed and evolved a mechanism to identify early-stage innovations that address technology gap, and have potential for energy savings as well as replication. This is being achieved through a series of annual ‘Innovation Challenges’ which are open award competition calling for innovative solutions in at present 6 technology verticals. Each technology vertical has an expert panel which defines the requirements of Innovation challenge and selects promising innovations that address the technology gaps and have potential to reduce energy consumption. The project has a target to identify 120 innovations for technology validation, and commercialize 40 innovations. The project provides financial assistance of up to US$50,000 to the winners to validate their innovation and demonstrate its efficacy (performance) in actual field conditions – a necessary step before commercialization.
- Technical assistance for Technology Transfer: The FLCTD Project aims to establish a deployment support ecosystem for clean, low carbon and energy efficient technologies. FLCTD will provide capacity building activities through consultations and workshops with international and national experts. Under this activity, FLCTD endeavours to enhance the functioning of Technology Transfer offices (TTOs) and centres through a two-step process: Identification of key areas that can be targeted through a capacity-building program via a consultative study to identify and address the factors that inhibit technology transfer from laboratories and higher education institutes to industries.
