Two Workshops Boost Progress Towards More Energy-Efficient and Climate-Friendly Air Conditioners in Nigeria

On 15 and 16 November 2023, the Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN), in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme United for Efficiency (UNEP U4E) and various partners, hosted a monitoring, verification and enforcement (MVE) training workshop and a stakeholder workshop as part of the Clean Cooling Collaborative-funded, Scaling Up Energy-Efficient and Climate-Friendly Cooling in Nigeria’s NDC Revision, project.

The first national stakeholders workshop in Abuja in March 2023, saw the inauguration of the National Technical Committee for the project and discussion of the key components of the project, the implementation strategies and their strategic roles of the stakeholders in the entire implementation process.

The second stakeholder workshop on 16 November 2023 marked a significant milestone in the project with presentation of the results of the air conditioner market assessment that has been undertaken as part of the programme of work. It gathered further insights and inputs from the participating stakeholders which will be used to further enrich the market assessment report and strengthened the collaboration with industry stakeholders and solicited their support for the air conditioner Minimum Energy Performance Standard (MEPS) review process.

The market assessment investigated the size of the Nigerian air conditioner market and its characteristics in terms of type, capacity, efficiency, refrigerants and price of air conditioners in use. It revealed that the market is dominated by split air conditioners (89%) and capacities below 5.86 KW (90%). It identified that close to 20% of the observed models fell below the current MEPS outlined in the Nigerian Standard with the efficiency of over 50% of the models clustered at the lowest end of the MEPS scale. 19% of surveyed models continue to employ R22,  a gas that is now banned for imports into Nigeria and 72% of models use on R410A, a refrigerant that is facing bans in some economies in alignment with the Kigali Amendment due to its high global warming potential.

This information was used to inform the dialogue on the options for updating Nigeria’s MEPS, including a detailed discussion on the National Cooling Action Plan (N-CAP) recommendation to align energy efficiency levels with those in the U4E Model Regulation Guidelines for Energy-Efficient and Climate-Friendly Air Conditioners .

A further report, Advancing Air Conditioners’ Energy Efficiency Regulation, Compliance and Enforcement: Implementation of key recommendations from the National Cooling Action Plan under the Project “Scaling Up Sustainable Cooling in Nigeria’s Nationally Determined Contribution”, was also released and discussed during the workshop. This proposes the strategies and rationale to implement the National Cooling Action Plan’s recommendations on upgrading the energy efficiency regulations for air conditioners and strengthening compliance on energy performance standards and labelling scheme in Nigeria and set the context for the implementation discussions.

One of the key project activities is the provision of training on monitoring, verification, and enforcement (MVE) to support the implementation of the revised MEPS.  To address this, a dedicated training workshop was held on 15 November 2023 specifically designed for relevant enforcement and regulatory agencies of the government and vendors of such products. Participants included agencies such as the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), National Environmental Standards and Regulatory Enforcement Agency, Nigeria Customs Service, National Ozone Office, Federal Ministry of Environment, Energy Commission of Nigeria and the Nigerian Energy Support Programme team.

In opening the workshop, Dr. Mustapha Abdullahi, the Director General of ECN, re-emphasised the project’s importance in contributing to meeting one of the NDC’s targets for a 2.5% per year reduction in energy intensity across all sectors of the nation’s economy. He encouraged participants to actively contribute to the implementation of the revised NDC for a better environment, reinforcing the collaborative and collective efforts needed to address the challenges posed by climate change  He noted that although air conditioner MEPS were first approved in Nigeria in 2017, they were scarcely enforced for a variety of reasons, including the lack of equipment for verification testing by the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON). With support from GIZ and the EU, this barrier has been addressed, and an air conditioner biometric testing facility has been procured for SON.

Against this background, the main objectives of this training workshop were: to build the capacity of relevant government institutions to effectively enforce energy performance standards of air conditioning equipment; to enhance their ability to carry out surveillance activities in the air conditioner sector to monitor compliance with these standards; to harness feedback from stakeholders and solicit their buy-in regarding the new energy performance standards proposed for air conditioner standards.

The workshop contents included energy efficiency calculation for air conditioners, application of ISO 16358-1:2013 on seasonal energy performance, the use and benefits of product registration system, market surveillance for labelling, and verification testing.

In conclusion, Mr Abdullahi confirmed the importance of the workshop, stating, “The outcome of this training workshop will complement ongoing efforts to strengthen the capacity of the concerned government agencies to carry out market surveillance and enforcement of air conditioner MEPS.”

For further information on the project, contact:

Okon Ekpenyong, Energy Commission Nigeria – ekpenyongokon@yahoo.com

Brian Holuj, UNEP U4E – brian.holuj@un.org

Etiosa Uyigue, UNEP-ECN – Etiosa.uyigue@un.org

Alternatively, you can download a copy of the project factsheet or visit the Nigeria page on the UNEP U4E website.