Bangkok, 20 February 2020The ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE) and United Nation Environment Programme (UNEP), under the United for Efficiency (U4E) initiative jointly organised the Inception Workshop of ASEAN Product Registration System and National Lighting Roadmaps on 19-20 February 2020 in Bangkok, Thailand. It was attended by the representatives from ASEAN Energy Efficiency and Conservation Sub Sector Network (EE&C-SSN) and the National Standard Bodies of the ASEAN Member States. Also in attendance were The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, International Copper Association (ICA), International Institute of Energy Conservation (IIEC), and United Nations of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP).

The Workshop aimed to consider and agree on the process and requirement for the development of both the Regional and National Product Registration System for Air Conditioners and National Lighting Roadmaps in the ASEAN Member States.

The product registration system will provide a reliable and easily accessible common application process, to reduce workload/costs for both applicants and regulators, to facilitate comparison of market offerings, to incentivize innovation in new more efficient product designs, to ensure compliance at the time of registration, to aid the identification of non-compliant products, to facilitate programme evaluation, and to facilitate related incentive and/or procurement programmes.

The adoption of efficient and climate-friendly lighting technologies could reduce the region’s total electricity use by 15 TWh of electricity each year by 2030, avoid the emissions of 9 million tons of CO2 each year, and reduction of annual electricity bills in ASEAN by 1.5 billion US Dollars by 2030.

This project supports the Regional Policy Roadmap on Harmonisation of Energy Performance Standards for Air Conditioner and Lighting, which was endorsed by ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting (AMEM) in 2017 and 2019, respectively. The project is expected to contribute to the energy intensity reduction target of 30% by 2025 under the ASEAN Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation (APAEC) 2016-2025.