Thriving Environment

HETA is unique among Power Africa programs in our ambitious scope and close ties to global health priorities. We look to unlock significant funding and partnership networks that will transform these realities for thousands of health facilities and the communities they serve. Our vision looks beyond HETA’s first five years—we are already doing the groundwork to create the governance structures and funding base for an independent organization that can continue supporting energy access and digital inclusion for the health sector well into the future.

With accurate and precise data, eGRID has become a potent tool for informed decision-making. Annual data improves the timeliness of emissions accounting and emissions reduction policymaking. Governments, scholars, students, and others—including individual consumers—can use the data in a wide variety of ways. They can estimate indirect emissions from electricity purchases and develop greenhouse gas inventories. They can calculate carbon footprints. And they can estimate avoided emissions from programs and projects that reduce consumption of grid-supplied electricity. As the demand for cleaner sources of electricity like solar and wind grows, these tools provide important insights on the environmental impacts of people’s options.

eGRID data is used by:

• Various applications and programs within EPA such as the Household Greenhouse Gas Emissions Calculator, Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator and Power Plants and Neighboring Communities
• The California Air Resources Board, Climate Registry, Climate Action Reserve, and Greenhouse Gas Protocol in estimating emissions from electricity purchases in the U.S.
• Research institutions such as Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the Combined Heat and Power and Emissions Savings Calculator and National Renewable Energy Laboratory for the Distributed National Carbon Sequestration Database and Geographic Information System (NATCARB)
• Academic institutions such as University of California, Berkeley’s CoolClimate Carbon Footprint Maps

eGRID has thousands of users, and Abt-led improvements continue to enhance the user experience. From late 2022 to late 2023, eGRID users were more engaged on the site in terms of views and downloads, with page views increasing nearly 18 percent. And from 2021 to early 2024, usage of the eGRID Data Explorer has nearly doubled.​

In late 2023, Abt started a new phase of work with EPA to develop the next generation of eGRID tools to support EPA’s new Low Emissions Electricity Program. We have been engaging stakeholders such as data analysts, corporations, students, and environmental justice communities to determine how they use eGRID data and what features will enhance the usability of eGRID for all.

In collaboration with EPA, we want to meet the growing demand for highly accurate emissions data—especially with spatial and temporal granularity – and the desire for user-friendly tools and easy-to-interpret visualizations. Communities and non-profits want to help educate and raise awareness and seek to tell a stronger story in their work.

Going forward, eGRID enhancements will support expanded education, awareness building, and community environmental justice priorities. Future updates will enhance data storytelling capabilities, make the data more dynamic for emerging regulatory and reporting frameworks, and ultimately position eGRID as the single source of truth for grid emissions reporting.

Mongolia’s potential to harness renewable energy and its government’s goal of becoming an energy exporter provide a fertile opportunity to advance energy reforms and attract international investors. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) launched the Abt-led Mongolia Energy Governance (MEG) activity in 2022 to build broad coalitions around politically sensitive reforms and promote self-reliance in Mongolia by bolstering energy sector governance.

MEG promotes a secure, stable, diversified, modern, and self-reliant energy sector through improved governance. We work with government and energy sector partners to increase market competitiveness, provide incentives for private investment, increase resilience to natural and human-induced shocks (including cyberattacks), and support the adoption of modern clean energy technologies.

Among other things, we:

• Promote transfer of knowledge and tools to strengthen the use of data analysis in planning and in assessing operational performance
• Enhance the government’s capacity to issue and award transparent procurements to diversify the investment portfolio and move toward a market-based sector
• Support a well-functioning, competitive energy sector to increase customer choices, improve service quality, increase energy security, maintain accountability for ratepayers, and build confidence among domestic and international financiers for advanced energy systems and technologies.

MEG is also addressing another challenge within the Mongolian energy sector: the underrepresentation of women as leaders and decision-makers. This is reflective of the global situation, where women comprise only 22% of the conventional energy sector and only 12% of leadership roles.

Abt’s equity strategy is to ensure a gender-just clean energy transition. Our Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) interventions include a combination of behavior change, awareness-raising, capacity building, and upskilling to empower women and increase their engagement in the sector. We promote the integration of women and youth into Mongolia’s heating and energy sectors by enhancing their technical and leadership skills, championing role models, and encouraging reflection on deep-seated cultural norms to promote transformative change in the sector.

In 2023, MEG:

• Contributed to the Ministry of Energy’s draft sectoral Gender Action Plan, and was appointed to serve on the GAP implementation working group
• Ensured women were well-represented in all technical trainings, to provide them with the necessary skills to thrive in emerging fields
• Developed and rolled out an e-module titled GESI in Energy and began developing a second e-module on integrating GESI in all stages of the energy project cycle.
• Launched the Energy Sector Women’s Leadership Initiative (ESWLI), tailored to provide junior and mid-level women with management, leadership, and professional skills to advance in their current roles
• Promoted male allyship through a presentation and an all-male panel discussion at the International New Energy Summit to gain the support and involvement of men, who occupy most decision-making positions in the energy sector, in gender equality initiatives
• Delivered gender-based violence and harassment training for stakeholders, to raise awareness around this pervasive issue in Mongolia’s masculinized energy sector.

As part of its efforts to promote women’s engagement in the energy sector, MEG also delivered communications and awareness-raising initiatives, including a well-attended virtual experience-sharing session featuring four women engineers for International Women in Engineering Day in June 2023.

To date, 1,727 people (40 percent women) have directly benefited from MEG's interventions, including technical study tours, training, and workshops. Abt and USAID MEG are enabling Mongolia’s private energy sector to create jobs and economic growth while reducing pollution, ultimately leading to a self-reliant energy sector.

MEG also provides opportunities for women to receive skills and leadership training to assist them in assuming decision-making roles in the energy sector and to normalize women’s involvement in a workforce made up of predominantly men.

“I wish I had attended the ESWLI leadership training three or five years ago. Attending this training was beneficial for my promotion as the only woman heading the Department of the Energy Regulatory Commission.” says Altantuya Dorjsuren, Head of Consumer and Rural Regulation Department.

Access to affordable, reliable, and modern energy services is critical to lowering GHG emissions and toxic air pollutants from the country’s energy sector and reducing Mongolia’s carbon footprint. MEG activities are our first step toward larger goals for the country that contribute to global climate action targets. By 2030, Mongolia aims to become energy self-sufficient. By 2040, Mongolia would like to then export clean energy to neighboring countries in the region. Having achieved these important milestones, the country hopes to increase green energy production and ensure sustainable energy supply to the region by 2050.

MEG activities advance a gender-just energy transition in the country, and women leaders agree this is critical. One of them is Chimegtsetseg Batmunkh, founder and director of Ultrasonic LLC, which is promoting the utilization of Mongolia’s renewable resources through small-scale engineering solutions. Batmunkh, recently featured in MEG’s Women in Energy series, says that engaging women can strengthen systemic improvements. She adds that they can “contribute not only to the industry's growth but also to a more sustainable and efficient future for Mongolia's energy landscape.”