LOW CARBON ENERGY PROJECTS AND RURAL ELECTRIFICATION

Plan Vivo, Mexico.
The Plan Vivo System - Plan Vivo (www.planvivo.org) is a set of guidelines, procedures and standards to provide certified environmental services (carbon offsets) from rural communities through activities to restore ecosystems, prevent land degradation, conserve biodiversity, protect watersheds and promote sustainable livelihoods. Currently there are Plan Vivo projects in Mexico, Uganda, Mozambique, and India. The Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management (ECCM), now part of the ESD group, developed the Plan Vivo system in the mid 1990s, and has worked since then to expand the system and gain greater recognition through partnerships with IUCN, UNEP and The Nature Conservancy.

Kisiizi Hospital, Uganda
ESD has been working with the World Bank to develop innovative rural electrification approaches in the developing world for ten years. A particularly successful approach has been the development of the ‘Energising Rural Transformation’ approach that works across all sectors (energy, telecommunications, health, education, agriculture, water) to address two of the most fundamental issues in rural development: providing affordable, sustainable electricity for increasing rural economic productivity (from agricultural product processing to small industries and businesses) whilst at the same time, providing affordable electricity for local health, education and other public services that increase access to the entire rural population, thereby improving their livelihoods.

This programme has progressed further in Uganda than any other country, and the case of Kisiizi Hospital, a Church of Uganda rural health facility serving a catchment of over 500,000 people, illustrates its benefits. The process involved setting up a rural electricity company (Kisiizi Power Limited), owned jointly by Kisiizi Hospital and the Diocese, and building a 320kW hydroelectric facility on the Rusabe River, with construction of nearly 15km of transmission and distribution lines to serve nearly 500 households, over 120 businesses, the hospital, a vocational training centre, and three schools. The project is stimulating investment and development in the area, and represents one of the most successful public private partnerships in Uganda’s newly liberalised electricity sector.

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