By Emmanuel Elebeke

A one day inception workshop on Global Environment Facility, GEF, on promotion of energy efficiency has ended in Abuja, with stakeholders reaching an agreement to commence full implementation of the four year energy efficiency project plan in residential and public sector projects in Nigeria.

They said this has become necessary in view of the compelling need for Nigeria to build and sustain a carbon free economy.

The workshop which attracted stakeholders from UNDP, federal ministry of environment, Energy Commission of Nigeria, importers and dealers on electronic gadgets and other relevant stakeholders provided discussants an opportunity to identify the technical, financial, institutional and regulatory barriers of scaling up of energy measures across Nigeria and how to overcome them.

The workshop was part of the commencement of implementation of the recently approved GEF promoting energy efficiency in both public and private places in Nigeria.

Different speakers who spoke at the occasion said the only way to promote energy efficiency in residential and public sectors is by conservation of available energy in the country through the end-use equipment such as refrigeration appliances, air conditioners, lightening, electronic motors, heating appliances and fans among others, being used in residential and public buildings in Nigerian through the introduction of appropriate energy efficiency policies and measures and demand side management programmes.

According to them, the project will also focus on strengthening the regulatory and institutional framework, develop monitoring and enforcement mechanisms, provide training to appliance and also equip professionals and devise a public campaign strategy that will promote energy efficiency in the country.

In his opening speech, the coordinator of the programme, Mr. Etiosa Uyigue said the programme was inaugurated to let stakeholders in the sector know what UNDP, JEF and the Nigerian government are about to do on energy efficiency in Nigeria.

“What we are doing today is to tell the public what the government of Nigeria and other development partners are about to do in Nigeria. It is all about changing peoples’ behaviour, and the way we do things, and the way we use our energy in private and public places.

We have come to realise that most of our polity focus much on power generation, but we are not looking much on that. Rather, we are looking on how to save the existing energy in the country, so that people can begin to save a lot of energy from earning,” said Uyigue.

With the 4,000 MW electricity being generated in Nigeria presently, the coordinator said he was optimistic that more people in Nigeria are going to have power, and the problem of climate change will be over, only if Nigerians are able to utilize the available energy very well, stressing that by the time government minimizes the establishment of more power stations in the country, carbon emission will be drastically reduced.

According to him, the project will address two issues: The energy crisis in Nigeria and the problem of climate change, which he said was the essence of the inception workshop.

Also speaking, Uyigue assured that the project would complement the effort of the federal government in improving power supply in Nigeria, pointing out that more Nigerians will have access to energy than never before, if government can meet up with the 10,000 MW target by year 2012.

With the plan by GEF to generate extra energy through conservation mechanism and reduction of carbon emission, he said it will be cheaper to generate power in Nigeria, rather than building more power stations across the country.