TERI University Conducts Global Programme On Sustainable Energy Leadership Skills

Practitioners from 20 countries participate in two-week programme co-designed by UNIDO

Mumbai: TERI University, the only institution of advanced learning in the country established with the mission of contributing globally by serving society through formal education and research in fields like environment, sustainability, energy conservation, policy and management successfully concluded a two week ‘Sustainable Energy Leadership Programme’ (SELP) for senior officials of UNIDO and representatives of governments from around the world. The programme, jointly developed by UNIDO with TERI and TERI University, provides a blend of classroom lectures, panel discussions, group exercises, experts' interaction and field visits overarching three goals of sustainable energy, namely energy access, energy efficiency and renewable energy.

This year 27 participants from 20 countries attended the programme, which was inaugurated last week by Dr. Sijin Lee, President & CEO, Korea Environment Corporation. This is the third edition of the TERI-UNIDO SELP Series, which has so far trained 75 officials since its inception in 2014, encompassing more than 20 countries particularly those from Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, South East Asia, and Asia Pacific regions.

The Programme Director was Prof. Amit Kumar, TERI University’s Dean of Distance & Short-term Education who is a veteran in the field and has been working on the development and diffusion of cleaner and renewable energy resources based technological solutions in India for over 33 years. Said Prof. Kumar, “The philosophy behind designing SELP has been to expose the future leadership of the global South to all the critical dimensions of energy in an integrated manner ranging from technology to economics to social aspects, including the gender dimension; with specific focus on how energy can be used to bring about sustainable and inclusive transformational changes."

SELP 2016 aimed at furthering South-South cooperation in a practical way, with a focus to hone leadership skills of participants by equipping them with an in-depth understanding of energy policy options, technology solutions, as well as financing and planning tools. SELP 2016 set out to help develop regional capacities to achieve the targets of renewable energy (RE) and energy efficiency (EE) in the respective regions. The endeavour is also to strengthen the capacities towards formulation and implementation of REand EE policies, especially for sustainable and Inclusive industrial development.

One of the participants, Mr. Gentjan Sema from UNIDO, Albania said, "What I liked about the Programme is the structure and the efforts TERI University and UNIDO put in to bring together resource persons with a vast array of experiences to be shared with us. Also, I got the chance to visit developed and developing technologies ready for upscale. I already have thought about a couple of ideas that can be replicated in our projects in developing countries within UNIDO.”

As summarized by Dr Pradeep Monga, Director of Energy, UNIDO, “SELP is the outcome of the strategic knowledge partnership that UNIDO has with TERI University and TERI. The very format of SELP makes it multi-disciplinary in nature and its uniqueness lies in blending field experiences in the curriculum.”