17 countries face renewable energy challenges: UNECE report

Despite comprising over 300 million inhabitants and representing 4.9 percent of the world's GDP, 17 countries in South and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia represented only 0.5 percent of global renewable energy investment in 2014, according to a report on Thursday released by United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).

The report, titled UNECE Renewable Energy Status Report, provided a comprehensive overview of the status of renewable energy and energy efficiency markets, industry, policy and regulatory frameworks, and investment activities in 17 countries.

The 17 countries include Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Montenegro, Russian Federation, Serbia, Tajikistan, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

The report highlighted that distributed renewable energy solutions such as solar photovoltaics, small-scale wind, biomass and micro-hydro can be a practical way forward to provide electricity for people living in remote areas or in areas suffering frequent power outages or unstable power.

Despite considerable potential and supportive energy efficiency measures, the penetration of modern renewable energy technologies for heating and cooling in the 17 countries remains modest.

The report noted these countries will continue to face challenges in improving the efficiency of their electricity supply, despite ongoing modernization of their aging electricity infrastructure.

"This report shows that these 17 countries are highly promising for the deployment of renewable energy technologies but lack far behind the progress made in other regions of the world. It is important to strengthen the enabling environment and build innovative financing mechanisms to boost the use of renewable energy," said Christian Friis Bach, UNECE Executive Secretary. Enditem