Delivering the Transition to Energy Efficient Lighting in Bolivia

The United Nations Secretary General’s Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) initiative identified energy efficient appliances as a “high impact opportunity” with the potential to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of countries, generate significant economic benefits, and improve people’s well-being.   The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Efficiency Valuation Organization (EVO) are working on a small-scale founded agreement for the “Delivering the transition to energy efficient lighting in Bolivia” project. Econoler cooperated with EVO on this project and provided expertise and technical assistance to support the development of a monitoring, verification, and enforcement (MVE) framework for minimum energy performance standard (MEPS) and labelling for lighting in Bolivia and provided technical training and assistance to government authorities and stakeholders. The beneficiary is the Ministry of Hydrocarbons and Energy (MHE), which will be the public entity responsible for the MVE of lighting MEPS.   

Under the mandate, Econoler was mandated to carry out the following tasks:

• Develop a proposal to strengthen MVE for mandatory standards and labelling and analyze capacity building needs. This task included stakeholder mapping and a review of existing MVE processes in Bolivia;
• Provide technical training sessions on MVE practices and operations to government authorities and customs administrations. One training was delivered in March 2022 in collaboration with UNEP and the MHE;
• Create the regulatory framework that will ensure MVE of the MEPS and labels that Bolivia will develop, including procedures and proposals for legal documents;
• Provide training on the proposed MVE mechanism to guarantee compliance with MEPS and labels and the phaseout of inefficient lamps. One training session was delivered in August 2022 in collaboration with UNEP and the MHE;
• Harmonize product certification processes with the rest of Latin American countries and especially with international best practices.

  Thanks to the work of Econoler, the client and the Bolivian government have the necessary information to implement an MVE mechanism to help achieve a shift toward an efficient lighting market based on MEPS and labelling.