Nordic-supported EEP Mekong to end in 2018

Logo-EEP-Mekong

Energy and Environment Partnership (EEP) Mekong is scheduled to end in 2018 and it has reached its second phase in 2014, narrowing its focus to increasing and improving access of rural populations to sustainable and affordable energy services and products in the Mekong countries, writes the Embassy of Finland in Hanoi. It also highlights the climate resilience of local communities through local decentralized renewable energy solutions.

The partnership programme is funded by the government of Finland together with the Nordic Development Fund, with the goal to support the access to sustainable renewable energy and to mitigate global climate change in the Mekong area in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam. EEP Mekong provides grants for projects that are implemented and supervised both regionally and nationally. The financing scheme of the programme is result-based with a special emphasis on human rights-based approach.

The Greater Mekong area hosts a population of over 300 million people and it is particularly vulnerable to climate change, due to its lack of functional infrastructure and adequate energy supply. Many communities in this area are heavily dependent on the ecosystem of the Mekong River and its natural resources that are being threatened by severe storms, rising temperatures and water levels. The rising sea level in Mekong Delta is affecting Vietnamese farmers in the southern parts of the country, because increasing amounts of salt in the river is making the water unusable for irrigation.

In Vietnam the projects funded by EEP Mekong are helping to reduce the country’s dependence on fossil energy sources and to reach its national energy goals in relying more and more on renewable energy solutions throughout the country.

Source: Embassy of Finland, Hanoi

About Joakim Persson

Freelance business and lifestyle photojournalist

View all posts by Joakim Persson

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *