In the Budget Speech in late February, the South Africa government confirmed that it will continue and widen a Municipal EEDSM (energy efficiency demand side management) fund for another three-year cycle. The EEDSM programme is a grant fund for municipalities to implement energy efficient retrofits in city infrastructure.

Three leading energy efficiency and renewable energy organizations – the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP, an international body), the Alliance to Save Energy (Alliance) and the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) – have jointly released their Compendium of Best Practices: Sharing Local and State Successes in Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy from the United States, in which state and local governments share the key elements of their programs, lessons learned and what made each program a success.