Colombo, Sri Lanka, 22 June 2021: With less than 10 years to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), realizing SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy, has been at the forefront of Sri Lanka’s energy and development sector. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Sri Lanka, together with the Sri Lanka Energy Managers Association, conducted a virtual training session on baseline data collection for provincial council officers from the Northern, Eastern, Uva, North Western and Southern Provinces recently via Zoom.

The training sessions held over two days, were a part of the ongoing project on Biogas, Biomass and Solar Triangular Cooperation - Transitioning to Sustainable Energy Uses in the Agro-Industry in Sri Lanka - China – Ethiopia (TSSC).  The sessions attracted over 145 provincial officers, Chief Secretaries and Deputies of all provinces, Secretaries of Provincial Ministries, the Directors of the Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries departments in each province and relevant field officials, along with counterparts from the China Agricultural University (CAU) and Administrative Center for China's Agenda 21 (ACCA21).

The sessions aimed to build the capacity of local provincial officers when engaging in measurement, reporting and verification for Sri Lanka’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) monitoring and national reporting on the Renewable Energy Technologies piloted by the TSSC project. Details of the priority technology interventions to be implemented through the project were presented and discussed with the provincial officers. The online data entry interface developed as a project by the Energy Data Management System (EDMS) of the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority was used to provide the training sessions for the officers.

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