By Victoria Onyisi
The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), has said that the body is ramping up efforts towards its panned Medium-Term Strategy 2022-2025 which is aims at addressing the triple planetary crisis.
According to UNEP, the challenges among others, include: Climate change, loss of biodiversity and pollution and to support progress toward the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Director General, Directorate Technical Cooperation in Africa, UNEP, Amb. Rabire Dagari, made the disclosure at the workshop entitled: “Scaling-Up Energy-Efficient and Climate Friendly Cooling in Nigeria.”
While thanking the Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN) on the collaborative deal and the support provided to this workshop, saying: “We all agree that cooling is essential to keep the comfort and productivity in hot and humid climate.
“It is also considered as critical in many vital sectors and services such as hospitals, storage of food and medicines, and many more.
“But if inadequately addressed, it will adversely impact the economy, competitiveness and environment.”
He acknowledged that the use of Air Conditioning (AC) significantly contributes to residential and commercial electricity consumption, adding that here in Nigeria, studies by the ECN revealed that averagely refrigerators and air conditioners consume about 40% of total households’ electricity consumption.
Cooling, is also a top driver of peak load which can contribute to increase the power outages, adding, it is also one of the biggest contributors to global warming: accounting for 7-10% of global GHG emissions, he said.
“UNEP’s Medium-Term Strategy 2022-2025 aims to address the Triple Planetary Crisis – Climate change, loss of biodiversity, and pollution and support progress toward the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
“Getting cooling right is an important driver to tackle these global challenges, as combining efforts to improve the efficiency of the products and equipment using environmentally-friendly refrigerants could double the climate benefits.
“UNEP is working with the COP28 presidency to deliver a Cool COP. As such, cooling will be a central feature of the Just energy transition in the COP28 official programme.” The DG, said.
He stated that UNEP has been partnering with COP28 presidency to champion a global cooling pledge that will be announced at the coming global event.
“The Pledge includes, among others, commitment to increase access to sustainable cooling by 2030 and increase the average efficiency rating of new air conditioning equipment.
“I’m also pleased to acknowledge the important progress that has been made so far on energy efficiency, the ratification of the Montreal Protocol and the National Cooling Plan, and of course the Testing Laboratory and the Scaling Up Cooling Project that brought us together today.” The DG added.
Significant progress, he said has been made on the delivery of this project since the successful meeting took place in march this year where the former Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology inaugurated the national technical Committee. This couldn’t be possible without the close collaboration between the ECN, UNEP, members of the technical committee and many industry and civil society representatives
“Today my colleagues will share with you the progress and achievements so far by presenting: The report on “Implementing National Cooling Plan’s priority Actions on Air Conditioners, Energy Efficiency Regulations, Compliance and Enforcement.
“This document provides the context and strategy that the project will use to support the update of the regulations and their enforcement and its interlinkages with national policies and programmes.
“The findings from Market Assessment of the Air Conditioners Market to inform energy efficiency regulations. We’d like to thank all contributors for their support with the surveys, sharing data and being available for consultations.
“My colleagues will also take this opportunity to: Share with you the preliminary results obtained from the market analysis to recommend Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) levels and develop the Impact Assessment of these recommendations.
“I’m pleased to share that a training workshop was held yesterday, to strengthen monitoring verification and enforcement protocols to action the effective implementation of the energy efficiency policies.
“We look forward to build on the outcomes of this event and UNEP stands ready to continue providing all the necessary support for the success of this initiative.” Dagari, said.
