Enigin Update - Ghana to Introduce Energy Labelling for Buildings
GHANA’S government is to develop an energy labelling system for buildings, which will also be compulsory, according to the Ghana News Agency (GNA).
The agency report that it is another step in Ghana’s efforts in ensuring that all buildings reach a high energy efficiency and environmental standard.
Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin, Ghana’s Minister of Water Resources Works and Housing announced the measure at the launch of the Ghana Green Building Council (GHGBC), in Accra yesterday.
The Council’s mission is to transform the country’s buildings through planning, design, construction, maintenance and decoration into a sustainable and energy efficient environment.
Bagbin also stressed the need for Ghana to adopt the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in converting existing buildings to environmentally friendly, energy efficient Green buildings, and hence reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 1.8 tonnes annually.
Bagbin added that according to UNEP, buildings consume between 30-40 percent of the world’s energy, making the building sector the single largest global contributor of carbon emissions.
UNEP also calculate that the building sector employs 5 to 10 percent of most nation’s workforce, leading Bagbin to comment: “This tends to support the theory that greening our buildings will not only tackle climate change, but will play a crucial role in meeting local socio-economic needs which includes job creation.“
Bagbin also advised that the pace of behavioural changes, regarding sustainability and energy efficiency in buildings, needs to increase to prevent massive deterioration of the ecological conditions across Ghana, with standards set and enforced within the construction industry.
According to GNA, Sherry Ayittey, Ghana’s Minister of Environment, Science and Technology observed during the launch, that redirecting policies in the building and infrastructure sectors was the way to transform the economy to a green one, emphasising the need for substantial public investment to restore and maintain public buildings.
She added that the private sector should take advantage of the availability of new technologies and invest in it to improve energy efficiency and sustainability.
“There are opportunities in the sector and the development of green buildings will create downstream employment for millions of people within the shortest possible time,” she said.
Enigin Distributors in Ghana are already helping many businesses and building owners to improve their energy efficiency by using technology from Enigin, including Eniscope which produces real-time, analytical and historical energy use data, which can also be displayed publicly.
Picture of Ghana, Accra, Independence Arch by George Appiah reproduced under Creative Commons license.
