Energy Effeciency

Innovation methods

Data sources

SDG(s)

Sustainable Development Goal(s)

11Sustainable cities and communities

12Responsible consumption and production

13Climate action

Disclaimer:

Please be aware that the content herein has not been peer reviewed. It consists of personal reflections, insights, and learnings of the contributor(s). It may not be exhaustive, nor does it aim to be authoritative knowledge.

Title

Please provide a name for your action learning plan.

Improving Energy Efficiency and climate sustainability

Challenge statement

Challenge type: If you are working on multiple challenges, please indicate if this is your "big bet" or "exploratory" challenge. Please note: we ask you to only submit a maximum of 3 challenges - 1x Big Bet, 2x Exploratory. Each challenge must be submitted individually.

EXPLORATORY

Challenge statement: What is your challenge? (Please answer in specific terms: "Our challenge is that...”.)

Our challenge is that Jordan is heavily reliant on imported fossil fuels. Through reducing energy consumption, particularly in the form electricity, the negative impact on the environment will be reduced.

Background: What is the history of your challenge? What is causing or driving it? Who is involved? How does the current situation look like? What undesired effects does it produce?

Due to the lack of conventional natural resources, Jordan imports the vast majority of its energy needs (over 95%) in the form of fossil fuels. This leaves the country extremely vulnerable to external shocks and creates severe negative effects on the environment. The rapid increase in population due to the mass influx of refugees from neighboring countries in recent years compounded the problem. Various development organizations are active in the energy sector, however, the majority of the development programs are focused on switching the supply to renewable energy sources (e.g. Solar). Although that is needed, it is not sufficient to address the problem. There is a large gap in terms of reducing energy consumption, which is a key first step in improving energy sustainability.

Quantitative evidence: What (official) data sources do you have on this challenge that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge? You can add text, a link, or a picture.

For our macro level analysis, we utilized a variety of data sources and reports: Government : Department of Statistics, Ministry of Energy and mineral resources, Energy and minerals regulatory commission. Donors: USAID, GIZ, UNDP and DFID

Qualitative evidence: What weak signals have you recently spotted that characterizes its urgency? Please provide qualitative information that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge. You can add text, a link, or a picture.

During our initial research, we found several newspaper articles, social media posts and radio talk shows discussing the issue of energy in Jordan, particularly the limited impact of the current renewable energy projects, their cost, their long term horizon and overall energy prices. In addition, as part of our field visits conducted for another portfolio, several citizens pointed out that their electricity bill represents one of the largest costs they incur monthly.

Value proposition: What added value or unique value proposition is your Accelerator Lab bringing to solving this challenge? Why is it your Lab that needs to work on this challenge and not other actors within UNDP, other stakeholders in the country respectively? Why is it worth investing resources to this challenge?

AccLab Jordan is investigating easy to implement, low cost and scalable interventions that utilize alternative sources of data and methods to support the average energy user in Jordan in reducing their energy consumption, bill, as well as their carbon footprint.

Short “tweet” summary: We would like to tweet what you are working on, can you summarize your challenge in a maximum of 280 characters?

Jordan is heavily reliant on imported fossil fuels. AccLab Jordan is exploring new, low-cost ways to reduce energy consumption at the household level, by testing a new electricity bill design, to reduce the negative impact on environment and the financial burden on households.

Challenge classification

Partners

Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.

Please state the name of the Parter:

Efawateercom

What sector does our partner belong to?

Private Sector

Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.

Efawateercom is Jordan's largest online payment portal. The lab is working on redesigning the electricity bill and is in discussion with Efawateercom to test and scale the new proposed design on their platform.

Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?

Yes

Learning questions

Learning question: What is your learning question for this challenge? What do you need to know or understand to work on your challenge statement?

Will changing the current design of the electricity bill to a more user friendly one encourage users to reduce their energy consumption?

To what stage(s) in the learning cycle does your learning question relate?

Explore, Test

Usage of methods: Relating to your choice above, how will you use your methods & tools for this learning question? What value do these add in answering your learning question?

Through using the above tools, we can develop new designs and capture/measure the impact of such new designs on average user energy consumption.

Existing data gaps: Relating to your choice above, what existing gaps in data or information do these new sources of data addressing? What value do these add in answering your learning question?

Most existing data focus on overall energy sector in Jordan (in aggregate terms) and on renewable/alternative energy as the potential solutions. To our knowledge, there isn't any serious and scalable effort aiming at reducing energy consumption from the demand side and at the household level.

Closing

Early leads to grow: Think about the possible grow phase for this challenge - who might benefit from your work on this challenge or who might be the champions in your country that you should inform or collaborate with early on to help you grow this challenge?

The energy sector and it's persistent challenges in Jordan affects almost every other sector in the country. The direct impact of a successful solution would reduce the financial burden on citizens as well as contribute to improving the overall environment and country's sustainability.

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