CITY ENERGY SUPPORT UNIT

Internationally, cities leading in the fields of sustainable energy and climate protection are supported by dedicated energy/climate change units. Such a unit has been established in South Africa as the City Energy Support Unit (CESU); funded by the British High Commission and Danida, and run by Sustainable Energy Africa (SEA).

The development of the CESU

This initiative has grown out of SEA's 10-year-old award-winning SEED (Sustainable Energy for Environment and Development) programme. Aside from SEED, SEA has also been involved in various other projects concerning sustainable energy policy and implementation, resulting in SEA's extensive experience in the provision of support to South African cities and its applicability in running the CESU.

About CESU

CESU has two main focus areas: the transistion to efficient and renewable cities with low carbon footprints, and alleviating energy poverty. Cities can achieve these aims through policy development and implementation, institutional development, and monitoring and evalutation of carbon mitigation projects and processes; with the following CESU support:

Technical support

Dedicated facilitation support services

Training

Capacity building

Tools, materials and guides

Exchange links

A steering committee will support intra-government communication and city efforts, as well as ensuring the quality of the CESU. The steering committee includes representatives from partner cities, key national government departments and leading experts in the energy field. Existing stakeholder links of the SEED program, which will be carried through to the CESU, includes: the South African Local Association (SALGA), the SA cities Network (SACN), the Enerkey programme, the Local Governments for Sustainable Partnerships (ICLEI), the Center for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies (CRSES) at the University of Stellenbosch and the Energy Research Center (ERC) and Urban Mobility Research Unit, both at UCT.

Membership

Any South African city may receive support. Due to resource constraints the level of support a city may receive has been divided into two categories: high level support allowing for direct facilitation, network participation and mentoring services formalised through a Memorandum of Understanding, and secondary support allowing access to materials, guides, training programs some ad hoc mentorship and technical expertise.

To see a all the currently supported cities, please Click Here ► or use the navigation menus to go directly to the city you are interested in.