Press Release

IEA/PRESS(99)17
Paris, 12 October 1999

Climate Technology Initiative (CTI) Presents World Climate Technology Organisation and Leadership Awards

PARIS - Two individuals and three organisations have won the World Climate Technology Award and the Climate Technology Leadership Award for 1999. The awards recognise success in stimulating the adoption of climate friendly technologies and practices in developing countries and in countries in transition to free-market economies.

"These winners cast a guiding light for others to follow in efforts to help the global environment. I am ecstatic to see climate-friendly technologies go from the drawing board and out into the field, overcoming barriers which are unique to each region, but not insurmountable, through innovation, perseverance, and plain old hard work," said Dr. Abraham Haspel, CTI Chairman from the U.S. Department of Energy.

"To face the long-term challenge of global warming, we have to ensure that developing and transition countries have access to the technologies that reduce emissions. The winners of these awards have shown how that can be done," said Robert Priddle, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency. The winners of the 1999 CTI Climate Technology Leadership Award are:

• Mr. Rakesh Bakshi, Managing Director, RBB Consulting and Engineering, India for commercialisation of wind energy and other renewable energy sources.
• Mr. William Chandler, Pacific Northwest Laboratories, United States of America for founding a global network of energy efficiency centres in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, the People's Republic of China, Poland, the Russian Federation, and the Ukraine.

The winners of the 1999 CTI World Climate Technology Award are:

• The Swedish program for an Environmentally Adapted Energy System (EAES) in the Baltic region and Eastern Europe for creating local capacity to convert coal boilers to biofuel, improve district heating, and refurbish buildings.
• The Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd. for creating financing mechanisms to support self-sustaining investment in energy generation by renewable sources, and to finance energy efficiency improvements in low-income and rural areas.
• The SNV Netherlands Development Organisation for initiating the Nepal biogas support program to promote wide scale use of biogas as a substitute for traditional fuels used for household cooking and lighting needs.

The 1999 CTI World Climate Technology Awards is the first occasion on which global champions of this environmental cause will be recognised for their efforts. The awards will be presented in a ceremony during the 5th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC to be held in Bonn, Germany on 1 November, 1999 at 18:15h. Mr. Robert Priddle, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, will present the awards.

The Climate Technology Initiative (CTI) is a multilateral effort by 23 industrialised member countries of the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the European Commission. The CTI fosters international co-operation for the development and transfer of technologies and practices that protect the environment by reducing emissions which cause global warming. The CTI is a communal response to commitments made by industrialised countries in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the global climate change treaty, signed in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Through the CTI, governments and industry from industrialised countries co-operate to further the UNFCCC process.

In addition to this year's award winners, the two previous Chairs of the CTI, Bert Metz of the Netherlands and Seiji Oshima of Japan, will be recognised for their leadership and guidance in defining and furthering the goals of this multilateral activity. Mr. Metz served as Chair from the founding of the CTI in March 1995 until July 1996 when Mr. Oshima assumed the post, serving until December 1997, when Dr. Haspel became the Chair.

The Climate Technology Initiative secretariat is part of the International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris, France. It pursues an active program to build capacity in developing and transition countries through training courses, seminars, information dissemination through the Internet, co-operative assessment of developing country technology needs, studies, research and publications. The CTI also maintains a Research and Development network through the IEA. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Press contacts:

Fiona Davies, Telephone +33 1 40 57 65 50, E-mail: fiona.davies@iea.org
Michael Rucker, Telephone +33 1 40 57 65 22, E-mail: rucker@iea.org

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