African Energy Efficiency Programme
This programme is developed by the African Energy Commission (AFREC) in collaboration with UN Environment’s United for Efficiency Programme (U4E), and supports Africa’s continental market transformation to higher efficiency lighting and appliances.
It seeks to reduce electricity consumption, air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions in Africa, as well as freeing more electricity for millions of new consumers and businesses. It also pursues to accelerate the continents transition, to more efficient electrical products, savings more than $175 Billion of African Consumers by 2030 and preventing the construction of more than 50 large (1 GW) power plants over the next twenty years.
A faster market deployment of more efficient lighting and appliances across the African Union Members States can be achieved through a common strategic, harmonised and integrated policy approach applied in each region and country.
Specific programme objectives are:
- Harmonisation of lighting and appliance standards and labeling across the African regions and in the African Union Members States.
- Support development and implementation of Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) at national level and related policies.
- Capacity building for regional and national energy efficiency policy makers and organizations as well as public and private stakeholders working in the industries and trade of lighting, appliances and electrical equipment.
- Fostering the attractiveness of energy efficient products to the final consumer.
- Incentivising industry to develop, importers to import and retailers to sell, energy efficient products.
It is expected that the achievement of the specific objectives (in short to medium terms) will serve as a stepping stone to push markets of the target regions and countries towards ever higher efficiency levels over the long term.
The programme also provides support to the AU Member States in order to:
- Strengthen management of energy efficiency programmes at national and regional levels, including complete legal framework on energy efficiency in industrial production, management of construction works, living activities and energy-consumption equipment.
- Strengthening of education and dissemination of information to raise public awareness and promoting energy efficiency and environmental protection among the citizens.
- Adopting energy efficiency measures in industrial enterprises by establishing a controlling model of energy savings and efficient use in enterprises. Also, assisting industrial enterprises to upgrade, improve and rationalise line for energy efficiency and environment conservation.
- Improving capability and implementing activities of energy efficiency in designing, maintaining and managing buildings.
Africa energy consumption is expected to increase significantly in future due to various factors, including economic growth, population growth, industrialization, climate change, urbanization and trade. Hence, cognisant that energy intensity of the industrial sector and large buildings is relatively high in Africa due to energy inefficient production in factories and construction of buildings, as well as limited awareness of energy savings opportunities and potentials, it is therefore important to sensitise African countries and encourage them to reduce the energy intensity through the introduction of energy efficiency and energy conservation measures.
This globally proven approach includes regionally harmonised standards and recommendations as well as Continental and International implementation support to national and regional energy-efficiency policy planning, programme design and project delivery for lighting, cooling, heating and appliances, by enabling more strategic energy and environmental policy making
The significance of this programme is based on the reality that large-scale tangible results in saved energy can be achieved in short-term with significant savings with very low cost through the adoption of an integrated policy approach to transform national and regional markets in Africa to higher efficiency electrical products.