Final report for USAID indefinite quantity contract # AEP-Q-801-95-00021-00

EEP was designed to facilitate the exchange of Asian environmental professionals to the United States and to regional events within Asia, and the exchange of U.S. environmental professionals to Asia. No time period for the contract is noted. A total of 71 activities engaging 242 exchanges targeting Mission strategic objectives were developed. In the area of environmental policy development, 37 activities were conducted, 22 under the Asia Sustainable Energy Initiative (ASEI), 1 under the Clean Technology Initiative (CTI), and 14 under the Reduced Greenhouse Gas Emissions (RGGE) program. The India buy-in was largely focused on industrial environmental improvements with only one program (the Asian Leadership Tour). Although, due to the nature of the programs implemented and the numerous organizations involved, the outcomes of many exchanges are still not known, the programs under this category have advanced the agenda of participating government officials through their exposure to new ideas, discussions, and networking. Longer-term results are very hard to quantify. IIE"s experience implementing the EEP contract suggests that it is most common for programs to have reportable result as much as 2-3 years after the completion of the exchange. In the areas of environmental management systems for industry, 11 activities were conducted, 4 under ASEI, 6 under CTI, and 1 under RGGE. The analysis of these results indicates that the CTI was indeed designed in large part to affect the performance of Indian industry, and 60% of the programs supported this goal. In many cases, the development of environmental management systems was further refined to the planning for certification under the International Standards Organization (ISO) 14001 series of standards. This calls for continual improvement and documentation of environmental systems used during industrial reduction. Under the category of efficiency initiatives, 10 activities were conducted, 6 under ASEI, 2 under CTI, and 2 under RGGE. These programs looked at energy efficiency technologies and practices used in the United States for industry and power generation utilities, often targeting demand-side management techniques. In the area of renewable energy (RE) systems, 9 activities were conducted, 5 under ASEI and 4 under RGGE. The analysis of these results demonstrates that, again, the India buy-in was primarily targeting industrial environmental improvement through the adoption of environmental management systems and clean technology. The ASEI and Philippines buy-in did in fact request several programs on RE system development by government and the private sector. RE system programs included site visits with the government-led programs that support research and development and with private sector companies that provide turn-key services for RE project implementation. A high level of support from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) allowed for discussion on existing and new international programs. The final four programs -- two from the ASEI buy-in and one each from the India and Philippines buy-ins -- included programs on environmental internet research, development and marketing of an environmental information center website portal, research and design of a rice hull gasifier, and a municipal solid waste to energy hydrolysis technology.