The goal of this programme is to contribute to enlarging the proportion of people with access to safe, reliable, affordable energy and water supply.

Climate change, energy and water projects are all executed under this programme. The activities under the theme enable ACTS to have greater impacts on energy, water and climate change issues in the region and in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The Centre also seeks ways to research and provide information on climate change adaptation aimed at informing policies on the environment and sustainable development in Africa.
Major achievements under this programme recently were the successful completion of the Community Based Adaptation in Africa (CBAA) project and the Trans-boundary Water Resources Management (TWM) projects. In addition, the National Biofuel Committee continued to lobby for approval of the draft biofuel policy by the Kenya Ministry of Environment to enable the draft policy move to the next step for debate by parliament. The ACTS’ PISCES project is spearheading the drafting of this national policy. Through numerous stakeholders’ consultations, the final draft policy has been produced under ACTS leadership. The Centre is spearheading the same process in Tanzania, India and Sri Lanka. Collaboration with University of Dar es Salaam through the PISCES project has resulted into two 2 patents.

Projects in this programme:

1. Trans-boundary Water Resources Management (TWM) Project

The Transboundary Water Resources Management for the Lake Victoria Basin is a training programme that targeted middle to high level personnel working on water issues that are Transboundary in nature. This was a 5 year project funded by Sida and implemented through partnership between Ramboll Natura, ACTS and the Stockholm Environmental Institute. ACTS played the regional coordination role. The focus of this training is Lake Victoria, whose waters are contributed to by 5 nations in the eastern Africa region. These countries are Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.

2. Capacity Strengthening in Least Developed Countries for Adaptation to Climate Change (CLACC)

CLACC is a global programme working in the least developed countries (LDCs) to strengthen their efforts to adapt to the impacts of climate change. With increasing evidence of extreme weather events attributable to impacts of climate variability and change, such as frequent droughts, floods, storms, among others; the need for greater and more urgent climate change adaptation and mitigation action is imperative. Under the CLACC umbrella ACTS is spearheading the climate change initiatives in the Eastern Africa region. The project is funded by a consortium of donors through IIED. This is an open ended project with new contracts signed annually.

3. Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change

ACTS, in partnership with colleagues in Eastern and Southern Africa, Europe and South Asia undertook an action research, testing tools for community adaptation, knowledge generation and capacity building project on Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change in Africa (CBAA). This three year pilot project  was funded by IDRC/DFID. The main phase of the project ended in February 2011.

4. Policy Innovation Systems for Clean Energy Security (PISCES)

Policy Innovation Systems for Clean Energy Security (PISCES) is a five year initiative funded by the UK's Department for International Development (DfID). The objective of the project is to provide policy makers with new information and approaches which they can apply to unlock the potential of bioenergy to improve energy access and livelihoods in poor communities. The project is being implemented in Kenya, India, Sri Lanka and Tanzania.
ACTS is the lead institution. The main partners are the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) in Tanzania, the University of Edinburgh (UoE) in the UK, the Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), in India and Practical Action UK, Practical Action East Africa and South East Asia.

5. Solar Transition: Facilitating South-South-North Transfer of Social and Technological Innovations on Solar Energy

This project is being implemented in partnership with the University of Oslo, Norway and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) India. The project aims to contribute to the understanding of success factors and lessons learned in the process of implementation and use of solar power plants in local communities in the South, as well as how such experiences can be transferred and adapted to other communities and countries. It is funded by the Norwegian Science Council through the University of Oslo.  ACTS role   is to participate in the implementation of the project activities in India and Kenya. This project is in its second year of implementation.

6. Piloting Bioethanol as an Alternative Household Fuel in Western Kenya

This is a two year action research project which started in July 2010. The main goal of the project is to promote sustainable household energy services. This pilot project is testing the feasibility of bioethanol from sugarcane residues as an improved commercial fuel and improved clean cookstoves for poor households. Bioethanol promises substantial reductions in indoor air pollution (IAP). This project is being implemented in Nyalenda village, an informal urban settlement in Kisumu town, Kenya. Data collected from this pilot is  used to inform the bioethanol policy strategy. It is funded by UNDP and is being implemented by Practical Action, Project Gaia Research Studies, African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS), Dometic AB Sweden, Spectre International Ltd, Kenya, Ministry of Energy, Kenya. ACTS role is to develop the policy and the Indoor Air Pollution (IAP) components of the project.

7. Piloting of Croton biodiesel on Stationary Engines

The PISCES in collaboration with the Ministry of Energy is piloting Croton megalocarpus for biodiesel on stationary engines. This project is being conducted with communities in Naro Moru around Mount Kenya. Data generated from this project will inform the biofuel policy on commercialization of biodiesel for household, stationary engines and transport in Kenya. ACTS is an implementing partner and leading the policy aspects of the project.