Southeast Asia and Pacific Monitoring, Verification and Enforcement Project
From 2013 to June 2016, lites.asia collaborated with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) en.lighten initiative’s Southeast Asia and Pacific Monitoring, Verification and Enforcement Project, funded by the Australian Government. This initiative aimed to help countries improve energy efficiency, reduce electrical demand, and lower greenhouse gas emissions across Asia and the Pacific. Efforts of the project focused on monitoring, verification and enforcement (MVE) activities and increasing compliance, which are essential parts of ensuring a sustainable transition to efficient lighting.
Non-compliant, inefficient lighting products compromise the effectiveness of energy efficient lighting programmes and policies. Low-quality goods can breach technical regulations and intellectual property rights. They are often sold at prices that exclude fair competition. These products can pose serious threats to human health and safety, as well as generate pollution and contribute to environmental degradation.
The project aimed to increase regional co-operation on efficient lighting, including the sharing of information and harmonization of standards, as part of a regional quality control system to increase consumer confidence in energy-efficient products, and lower their cost.
The results of the collaboration between UNEP and the Australian Government aim to improve the monitoring, verification and enforcement of lighting products that can lead to other energy efficiency measures including legislation, policies, administrative processes and enforcement mechanisms.
The project also involved quantitative and qualitative comparisons of the availability, performance and compliance of lighting products in the region, and the training of technicians and scientists.
Reports, training materials and data produced as part of the project is available on the lites.asia Resources page, or for more information on the project and to download copies of the materials, visit the UNEP en.lightened learning portal.
A key outcome of the UNEP en.lighten initiative Southeast Asia and Pacific Monitoring, Verification and Enforcement Project is the ASEAN agreement to harmonise lighting standards, first endorsed at the lites.asia meeting in February 2015, adopted as a formal ASEAN proposal in April 2015 and agreed by the ASEAN Energy Efficiency and Conservation Sub Sector Network (EE&C-SSN). The ASEAN SHINE platform was recently extended to include lighting to progress this ASEAN harmonisation initiative. Further information about ASEAN SHINE is available on the ASEAN SHINE website at www.aseanshine.org