Control of Greenhouse Gas Emissions through Energy Efficient Building Technology in West Africa

In West Africa, operating large buildings accounts for 25 to 30% of the total consumption of electricity, most of which is generated by thermal power plants causing the emission of greenhouse gases, which are added to emissions from the other local or global sources. Despite their environment interest and cost-effectiveness, investments in energy efficiency in buildings can only be made on a large scale in the region by combining a technical capacity and an adequate institutional framework (regulations, standards, appropriate taxes and tariffs, fiscal incentives, introduce and disseminate energy-efficient building technologies in West Africa and prove their cost-effectiveness, in order to create sustainable conditions allowing to retrofit the existing buildings and to design, build and operate more efficient new buildings. The GEF will provide the core funding for the project which will be managed by UNDP and executed by OPS. The GEF recommends approaching other donors to obtain parallel co-financing in order to disseminate the results of the project to other French-speaking countries in West Africa.