Capacity Development for Environmental Management and Governance in the Energy Sector in Developing Countries

George Matheson and Laurie Giroux
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George Matheson: Marbek Resource Consultants
Laurie Giroux: Marbek Resource Consultants

No 25, OECD Environment Working Papers from OECD Publishing

Abstract: The relationships between energy, the environment, and development are deep and complex. The International Energy Agency has noted that energy is deeply implicated in each of the economic, social and environmental dimensions of human development. Energy services provide an essential input to economic activity, contribute to social development, and help meet basic human needs. But energy production and use also has significant environmental implications that must be managed if countries are to meet their long term sustainable development goals. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of environmental management and governance in the energy sector; to present environmental goals, requirements, entry points, and strategies/approaches to capacity development for the environment (CDE) in this sector; and to discuss implications for donors. The focus is on CDE in a developing country context. The paper recognises that CDE must be seen as part of an endogenous process of change, and that it must operate at multiple levels: the enabling environment, the organisation, and the individual. The paper argues that capacity development is not an end in itself; instead, defined environmental goals should be the basis for determining capacity requirements, which in turn should be the basis for defining capacity development priorities. Based on this, the paper further argues that CDE should focus on sustainable energy sources of relevance to the majority of the population, and on increased efficiency of energy use. The paper links these concepts to the country systems approach to development assistance advocated in the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, and discusses some of the challenges donors face in providing CDE assistance that responds to these concepts and principles.

Keywords: capacity development; country systems; developing countries; energy efficiency; energy sector; environmental governance; environmental management; renewable energy; sustainable energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H23 O13 O17 O19 O29 O33 Q01 Q4 Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-02-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene and nep-env
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oec:envaaa:25-en

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