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This course
package will be delivered entirely through distance online education.
The course will provide in-depth knowledge of energy options within the
context of sustainable development. The course is designed to be
intensive and will consist of a Foundation Session: Understanding
Energy for Sustainable Development and an Advanced Session:
Responding to Key Energy for Sustainable Development Challenges.
Completion of both sessions will require in total an average of 100
hours of effort, spread over 10 weeks.
Foundation
Session:
Understanding Energy for Sustainable Development
The 6-week duration Foundation Session is designed to serve as a
comprehensive introduction to a range of key energy for sustainable
development issues. These include the linkages between the provision of
energy services and poverty, economic development, health, security and
the environment. The topics selected for coverage will allow
development specialists to get a first-hand yet in-depth view of key
challenges associated with implementing energy for sustainable
development in a variety of development related contexts.
The session’s
scope and content is intended to promote deeper understanding of the
following issues:
- Linkages between energy, social and development issues
such as poverty, gender, urbanization, health, livelihoods and economic
development.
- Energy security
- Sustainable management and use of energy resources and energy
technologies including renewable energy technologies and advanced
energy technologies
- Energy concerns in developing countries including rural
energy, and
- Enabling frameworks and policies that promote energy for
sustainable development.
The training
materials compiled within this course are part of the outreach
activities of the World Energy Assessment: Energy and the Challenge of
Sustainability (WEA). They are built directly upon the Training
Materials on Energy for Sustainable Development: World Energy
Assessment Outreach Modules that were developed to disseminate the
findings of the WEA. The Foundation Session is structured into three
sections with four modules each:
Section I - Energy for Sustainable Development
I-1 Energy and Social Issues
I-2 Energy, the Environment and Health
I-3 Energy and Economic Issues
I-4 Energy Security
Section II - Energy Resources and Technologies
II-1 Energy Resources
II-2 Energy End-Use Efficiency
II-3 Renewable Energy Technologies
II-4 Advanced
Energy Supply Technologies
Section III - Enabling Frameworks and Policies for
Sustainable Energy
III-1 Energy Scenarios
III-2 Rural Energy
III-3 Reshaping Markets and Building Capacity
III-4 Key Policy Areas for Sustainable Development
The Foundation
Session will involve inter alia: a range of readings, quizzes
and self assessment, written assignments, and participation in online
discussion forums facilitated by international energy and development
experts. Feedback for assignments will be supplied on an individual
basis.
Successful
completion of the Foundation Session will lead to a formal European
university level certification corresponding to 3 European Credit
Transfer System (ECTS) credits.
Advanced Session: Responding to Key Energy
for Sustainable Development Challenges
In a rapidly changing global environment, professionals at
multilateral, bilateral, and non-governmental institutions and
businesses have to embrace new ways of thinking and approaches to
remain relevant whilst addressing current global challenges. The
principal objective of the 4-week Advanced Session is to provide a
forum for “energized debate and discussion” that will enable the
adoption of innovative and new approaches as well as strengthen
capabilities to address global challenges.
Participants will be provided a forum to engage with and respond to a
set of four globally relevant and highly topical challenges related to
energy for sustainable development. The four topics selected for global
discussion in the most recent Advanced Session in October/November 2007
were:
1. Energy security and climate change policies in developing countries.
2. Energy diversification by biofuel programs in developing countries.
3. Energy for the promotion of entrepreneurship among rural women.
4. Contribution to sustainability and MDGs of renewables: a vision from
developing countries.
The 4-week duration Advanced Session is not designed to focus on
technical issues related to specific energy systems but is geared
towards deepening and broadening a global understanding of new and
critical macro-level challenges, policy priorities and strategies. The
session will be structured to allow for interactive yet systematic
debate/discussion of strategies and options from interdisciplinary
viewpoints. Accordingly it allows for interested development
specialists to engage, at a deeper level, in addressing critical
and current economic, environmental, socio-political as well as
technological challenges related to energy for development issues. This
includes global concerns ranging from global climate change to the
impacts of globalization.
This session seeks to bring together senior staff from a range of
institutions and agencies to discuss current global themes and
challenges related to energy for sustainable development. It also aims
to generate brainstorming of potential and feasible responses and
actions. It is anticipated that interested participants can return
every year to engage with new interactive debates and discussions since
each session will take up new issues of current policy relevance and
global significance.
The primary instructional aim of the Advanced Session is to promote
active dialogue, exchange of ideas and options and creative
problem-solving aimed at addressing and responding to key challenges
that affect the global, regional and national objectives related to
energy for sustainable development.
The interactive platform will be hosted by Lund University (in Sweden)
and will be serviced by a specially designed online course platform
that will provide the four selected global challenges/questions.
Participants’ responses to the targeted discussion groups will be
reviewed by designated experts responsible for moderating the
discussion groups and providing specific feedback to individual
participants. There will be no required reading assignments but
participants will have online access to a list of suggested readings
that can advance their responses to the selected discussion groups.
UNDP, IIIEE, the IEA and other centres of excellence participating in
the UNEP-facilitated Global Network on Energy for Sustainable
Development (GNESD) will serve as primary partners engaged in
facilitating the online discussions groups and in providing detailed
feedback.
Successful completion of the Advanced Session will lead to a formal
European university level certification corresponding to 2 European
Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits.
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