The objective of the project is to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions resulting from current heat and hot water supply practicies in Armenian cities by laying the foundation for the sustainable development of heat and hot water supply services in these cities while taking into account global environmental impacts. Whithin this framework the project aims:

• strengthen the role of condominiums in collectively organizing and managing heat and hot water supply services at the building level;
  
• support the restructuring and capacity building of the existing district companies to improve both their service quality and operational efficiency;
  
• support the new decentralized service providers to commercially run, market and diversify their businesses, in order to promote the use of alternative environmentally clean and energy efficient technologies and to structure financing for the required investments in areas that do not sustain the centralized district heating services;
  
• utilize the results, experiences and lessons learned for advancing the sustainable development of the heat and hot water services in Armenia with a specific emphasis on the GHG emission reduction aspects, as well as develop norms and enforcement mechanisms for supporting sustainable use of forest resources and implementation of the objective of the Climate Change Convention.
  

The proposed capacity building and other technical assistance activities will complement, and will be implemented in close co-operation with, the activities of the other donors including the World Bank/IDA funded Urban Heating Project and USAID funded activities in the field of energy and environment.

Additional opportunities for co-operation will also be explored with other donors, in the areas of urban development and promotion of local administration bodies and the promotion of small and medium-sized private-sector enterprises in regard to trade, production and services.