Chuks Oyema-Aziken
In a bid to meet with global climate targets, Nigeria has begun moves towards greening the cooling sector.
The Refrigeration and AC sector-RAC which consume about 30% of the energy/ power generated, offers cooling services, has grown steadily due to rapid urbanization, population growth and climate related heat waves etc.
This has also increased the sector’s contribution to the national greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions from both direct and indirect sources.
The Minister of Environment, Mohammed Abdulahi, said on Wednesday at the stakeholders workshop for Validation of the Draft National Cooling Plan, NCP, in Abuja, that government already has market data of refrigeration and air conditioning equipment in the country.
He also disclosed that the plans are on top gear to design concept and detailed program proposal for piloting domestic refrigerators “Swap Out” initiative.
Nothing the successes recorded in the implementation of the draft National Cooling Plan, NCP, by representatives drawn from relevant MDAs, RAC associations and industry representatives , the minister noted that the data was useful in the development of the draft National Cooling Plan.
He stated further that the move was to complement global efforts towards preservation of the Ozone layer and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions as part of fall out of the Kigali Cooling Efficiency Programme, KCEP, project approved for Nigeria in 2018 by the Climate Works Foundation.
Abdulahi, who said the project is being implemented by United Nations Development Project, UNDP, in collaboration with the ministry, recalled that the project commenced in 2020 with an inception workshop involving relevant stakeholders from which a core of project working was formed to guide the implementation of the project.
He said the group played effective role in ‘Strengthening collaboration among relevant MDAs and increased awareness of stakeholders on improving energy efficiency in the cool sector.
“Training of 31 trainers who are mostly lecturers in refrigerator training institutions and more than 69 technicians on improving energy efficiency in the refrigeration and air conditioning servicing sector.”
He said, “Furthermore, 40 stakeholders, mostly, regulatory and policy officers were trained on operationalization of energy efficiency policies and regulations the cooling sector.”
Abdulahi added that the group also developed documents and reports strategically designed to transform the refrigerator and air conditioning market with assessment of the sector.
“Assessment and recommendations for funding and financial mechanisms for sustained RAC marker transformation and potential linkage to the NDC of Nigeria.
“Overview and analysis of the refrigerator and air conditioning sector and revision of local MEPS and label recognition.
Programmes Manager, UNDP, Olayedipo Shupo, said the Nigerian government and his organization have made efforts in preservation of the Ozone layer.
Accordingly to him, “We started with TFCs, to HCFCs, and now we are moving to HCFs which is where we are today.
“Nigeria has committed itself, one of the milestone is actually Jan 1 2023, when some of this substances will not be allowed into the country anymore.
“But before that time, what the Federal Ministry of Environment is trying to do is to make sure that the alternative are available because you cannot ban something when people don’t have alternatives; which is why we do most of this programmes.
“As you know, the refrigerating sector, we only have technicians, we don’t really have people.
“The people that actually use them are the technicians on the street. If you ban it and say it is not coming in, where will they get HFCs.
“We have HCFs which we are moving away to replace it with HCFs.
Basically that is what we are trying to do with the federal ministry of Environment. Even with that we still have a lot of variant..
“The idea is to basically put replacement in place before Jan 1st 2023, which is why we have the Customs, so that if you are trying to import them, it can be stopped.”
