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Roland Kobia: â€œNational Strategy on the use of Alternative and Renewable Energy Sources will bring benefits to Azerbaijan’s economyâ€

18 January 2012 10:11 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Victoria Dementyeva - APA-Economics. EU Delegation to Azerbaijan welcomes the recent decree of President Ilham Aliyev on the preparation of National Strategy on the use of Alternative and Renewable Energy Sources for 2012-2020.

â€œAzerbaijan, besides oil and gas, has a great potential for green energies like solar, wind, hydro, geothermal and biomass. The swift preparation of the appropriate legislative framework will stimulate the development of this emerging sector, bring benefits to Azerbaijan’s economy and contribute to reaching the global goals of combating climate changeâ€, Kobia said in a statement.

â€œThe decree reinforces the already existing cooperation between Azerbaijan and the EU on renewable energy through budget support, and we hope to see a similar initiative for the no less important area of energy efficiencyâ€, Kobia said.

The ambitions of Azerbaijan to form a truly sustainable energy system and to create the legal framework in order to establish optimal conditions for the promotion of renewable energy sector are expected to be fulfilled to the highest international standards, the statement said. The planned strategy complements the achievements of Azerbaijan under the bilateral Energy Reform Support Programme.

The EU funded Energy Reform Budget Support programme assists the Ministry of Energy and Industry in the development of a legislative and regulatory framework on renewable energy sources and energy efficiency in Azerbaijan. This programme was vested with EUR 14 million; the first fixed tranche was disbursed in 2010 and the second tranche - in December 2011.