How to Implement and Finance Cities’ Efforts for Energy Transitions in the Middle East and North Africa? (Webinar) – 24.01.2019

This webinar will discuss the specific and general challenges for cities looking to tackle the current issue set of energy transitions across the region, with a particular focus on solution-sourcing for implementation strategies and financing procurement. Concrete examples on creative solutions will be provided from both the Lebanese and Jordanian contexts, and participants will have the opportunity to discuss and delve into the possibility of adapting these strategies for their own local needs, and mindful of their own contexts.

Olgu Okumus will give a general presentation on current conditions for energy transition efforts across the UfM working region, with a specific context on common challenges and themes facing municipalities. She will give an overview of how the rest of the webinar will run, will highlight specific skillsets of the webinar’s other presenters for the benefit of joining parties, and discuss the moderation of questions (set for the end of the discussion), follow-up inquiries, and related matters.

Christina Abi Haidar will provide an explanation of the current frame of PPP regulations in Lebanon, highlighting strengths, weaknesses, and evolutions within the current statutes. She will then provide examples, tips, and strategies for how cities in Lebanon are able to use the PPP framework to help further their own localized strategies of energy transition and climate change action in order to draw upon private sector efficiencies as part of their own municipal action plans. She will then answer questions, helping participants tailor her own experiences for their own particular contexts, and in light of their own local PPP regulatory situations.

Meqdad Meqdad will describe the creative models developed by the Greater Amman Municipality to incentivize and motivate groups to focus activities on the construction and renovation of buildings to be energy efficient and in line with larger climate action plans. He will then highlight general best practices that can be drawn out of the Greater Amman Municipality’s experience which may be of use to other participants in the webinar, based upon their particular problem sets and needs. He will then answer questions, helping participants tailor his described solutions for their own particular contexts.