Technical Advisory Team

Dr. Manuel Fuentes
International Consultant

Dr Manuel Fuentes. Manuel has 20 years’ experience in the Sustainable Energy, Climate Change and Environmental fields; and excellent knowledge and understanding of established methodologies for the integration of environment and climate change in sustainable urban development; and in designing and implementing sustainable energy programs and specific measures for governments.

A British / Argentinean national, Manuel has participated in a great number of international projects in Europe, Latin America, Africa and other regions in these fields. He has advised governments, Multilateral Financial Institutions and Development Institutions in energy policy and climate change strategies.

Currently, he is the Director of the International Urban Cooperation in Latin America and the Caribbean, programme financed by the EU.

Manuel has developed the Mauritius’ Renewable Energy Masterplan, supported of the Implementation of the Ethiopian Energy Efficiency Program, and developed the Rural Electrification Master plan for Uganda and Ecuador.

He provided technical assistance in developing the Scoping of Potential Interventions in the Energy Sector in Lesotho and the Regional Programme for the sector of Sustainable Energy and Marine Biology in Caribbean OCT’s countries under 11th EDF.

He supported the preparation of the “EU Accountability Report on Financing for Development” for the years 2013-4-15 and the study “Study on Accuracy of the Commission’s methodology to assess financing of Climate Change, Desertification and Biodiversity” (Rio Markers).

He has worked in implementing the East African Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Centre and the SICA Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Centre (in Central America).

Manuel has gained significance experience with EU development policies as well as with EU development cooperation programmes. Relevant examples are: Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy in the context of Climate Change in Latin America; Linking Income-Generating activities and micro-enterprises with Energy Services for the Poor in the Chaco Region (Crecer con Energía); Third Party Financing through SMEs as a strategy for developing innovative energy projects in Argentina.

Manuel Fuentes has had 6 studies published by either EU, the World Bank, the Inter- American Development Bank and the British Government plus several publications and communications in congresses. He is also the co-author of the best seller book The Ecohouse Design Guide Book published by Architectural Press in 2001.

Dr Fuentes received his PhD at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (USA) in the field of Physics. Manuel is fluent in Spanish, English and Portuguese, both written and oral.

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Dr. Vikram Seebaluck
Consultant – University of Mauritius

Dr. Vikram Seebaluck is a Senior Lecturer and Ex-Head of the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at the University of Mauritius.

He has a PhD degree in Chemical Engineering and lectures and researches in the field of renewable energy technologies with an emphasis on bioenergy for sustainable development.
He has been a Doctoral Researcher at the Mauritius Sugar Industry Research Institute and Principal Researcher and Co-Leader for an EC-funded thematic research network on sugarcane in southern Africa.

He published a book entitled ‘Bioenergy for Sustainable Development and International Competitiveness – The Role of Sugar Cane in Africa’ in 2012 which received back cover comments from global key personalities including Dr. R. K. Pachauri, Director-General, TERI and Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and 2007 Nobel Prize Winner, Kandeh K. Yumkella, Director-General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and José Graziano da Silva, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations amongst many other global stakeholders.

He is currently working on the SCOPE Bioenergy & Sustainability project which unifies leading global biomass experts for promoting bioenergy worldwide. He is also currently the Regional African Focal Coordinator of the United Nations University-Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources (UNU-FLORES) which focuses on the sustainable management of environmental resources (soil, water, waste, energy).

James Agenbag
Consultant Engineer

Mr Agenbag has 15 years experience in phases of business and project development, including process design, commissioning and optimization of a range of processing facilities across multiple commodities. After completing his Chemical Engineering degree at the University of Stellenbosch in 2003, James worked as a process design engineer at EPCM companies including GRD Minproc and DRA Mineral Projects.

In 2008, James moved to Australia to help build DRA’s Brisbane office. His responsibilities included research and development of new business and client management in Southern Africa, Australia and Indonesia. James also has substantial experience in beneficiation optimisation with emphasis on various technologies including some technologies where he jointly holds patent rights. James has delivered technical papers within his area of expertise within the chemical engineering area. More recently, he has been responsible for the process engineering discipline across Peabody Energy Australia’s mineral projects. James is also affiliated with ECSA as a Professional Engineer. He is a Member of IEAust (Chem), and is an active Member of the Australian Coal Processing Society.

Mr Agenbag serves as both executive and non-executive director on the boards of companies in Australia. He is currently engaged as regional manager across Africa for a subsidiary of a ASX listed company. His responsibilities include business optimisation, project management, market research, development of new business and client management.

James has an extensive international network that stretches across Australia, South Africa, USA and Mauritius.

Mr. Agenbag conducted several technical audits of power plants in Mauritius to quantify the efficiency of the feedstock used when burnt in the boilers and was able to recommend alternatives that could improve boiler and overall plant operation efficiency thus reducing costs.

James has been actively engaged in the consulting of the Equilibre arundo donax to electricity project since 2014. In particular, he has been responsible for preparing the Equilibre project financial business plan, researched the Mauritius existing IPPs power plants efficiency and adaptability to different types of feedstock, including arundo donax. Mr. Agenbag has been involved in the preliminary feasibility study for an arundo donax pelletizing manufacturing facility to be built in Mauritius. He has also performed a comparative technical and commercial analysis on fossil coal versus arundo donax biomass when used as feedstock to produce electricity.

Bilal Anwar
General Manager
The Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub

Bilal Anwar is an International Climate Policy and Climate Finance professional with 18 years of exrerience in United Nations Inter-governmental climate change negotiations process, international climate finance policy development, implementation of global scale multi-stakeholder climate finance related adaptation and migration programs and projects.

Currently heading up the newly established entity ‘The Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub’, with headquarters in Mauritius abd country support programmes in number of Commonwealth member countries. The goal of The Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub is to provide technical and capacity enhancement support to small island nations, least developed (LDCS) and other climatically vulnerable countries in facilitating their access to interantional sources of climate finance.

Previously, served in ‘United nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)’ from 2000-2010 in Bonn, Germany, as a Team Leader, in providing policy options and operational approaches in the inter-governmental climate change negotiations process and in developing the methodological and technical mechanisms in the development of Global Carbon Market. During this period also led the UN Climate Finance and Capacity Building Programme for the developing and climatically vulnerable countries of the world.

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