International

Built some 2,500 years ago on a seaside cliff in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, Thiru Koneswaran is the country’s oldest Hindu temples. And though it remains an active place of worship, the temple had for years suffered chronic water shortages that greatly hampered its daily functions. Thanks to a Watergy-trained local engineer, however, the temple and surrounding town are today saving precious water and energy.

Water, energy and climate change are pivotal issues in a new project explicitly titled “Climate Change Vulnerability and Infrastructure Investment Assessment and Analysis for Small Scale Water Utilities in the Lake Victoria Basin.” With funding from UN Habitat’s Water and Sanitation Trust Fund, the Alliance will partner with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Stockholm Environment Institute-US Center (SEI-US) and Climate XL to carry out the project, which is scheduled to last 18 months and encompass water utilities in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

The Alliance has been working with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on projects under the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate’s Buildings and Appliances Task Force (APP-BATF). One of the Task Force’s goals is to promote high-performance buildings through outreach and training in the use of building simulation tools, and through the promotion of technologies and best practices for net-zero energy buildings, building performance measurement and benchmarking and market transformation.