ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — As the sun sets in the Nigerian capital of Abuja, Ahmed Bukar turns on his home air conditioner for a blast of warm air. The charge valve on the outdoor unit is leaking the refrigerant gas that powers the unit. A technician recently helped him refill the air conditioner with gas, but he didn’t test for possible leaks.
In Abuja and across Nigeria, air conditioners are popping up out of walls as the appliance transforms from a middle-class luxury to a necessity in an increasingly warm climate. The industry is governed by regulations that prohibit the release of refrigerant gases into the air, such as by requiring leak testing after an appliance has been repaired. Yet routine release of gases into the atmosphere through shoddy installation, unsafe disposal at the end of use, or adding gas without leak testing is a common problem in Nigeria, although illegal.
The gases called refrigerants that make refrigeration systems work have hundreds to thousands of times the warming power of carbon dioxide, and the worst of them are also harmful to the ozone layer. In response to global agreements that promised to limit the release of these gases into the air, such as the Montreal Protocol and the Kigali Amendments, Nigeria has adopted regulations that govern their use. But enforcement is a problem, jeopardizing Nigeria’s commitments to reduce emissions.
“Those laws, those regulations, nobody enforces them,” said Abiodun Ajeigbe, manager of Samsung’s air conditioning business in West Africa. “I have not seen any enforcement.”
‘I didn’t learn it’
The weak regulatory system for the refrigeration industry in Nigeria is evident in the widespread lack of proper training and awareness of environmental damage caused by refrigerants among technicians, Ajeigbe said. And it is common to see.
After Cyprian Braimoh, a technician in the Karu district of Abuja, uninstalled an air conditioner for a customer who was moving to another neighborhood, he carelessly allowed the gas from the unit to leak into the air. This allowed the unit to be refilled with fresh gas at the customer’s new location.
If he were following the country’s rules, he would capture the gas in a canister, which would prevent or minimize the environmental damage from the gas. Technicians like Braimoh and those who have serviced Bukar’s device without leak testing are self-employed and unsupervised. But they often get customers because they offer cheaper services.
“I wasn’t taught that; I just release it into the air,” said Braimoh, who originally specialized in electrical wiring for buildings before turning to air conditioner repair to broaden his income opportunities. He received spotty training that didn’t include the required safety standards for handling refrigerants. And he still didn’t perform a leak test after installing the air conditioner at his client’s new location, as required by the country’s refrigeration industry regulations.
Installations performed by well-trained technicians who comply with environmental regulations can be more expensive for customers. This is often the case in Nigeria, where hiring the services of companies like Daibau, which later helped Bukar fix his leaks, can result in higher costs.
Manufacturers that directly provide refrigeration and air conditioning installation services to large commercial customers have attempted to regulate themselves by organizing safety training and certifications for their technicians, Ajeigbe said.
Powerful greenhouse gases
According to industry professionals and public data, the most common air conditioners in Africa still use what is known as R-22 gas. This refrigerant is less harmful to the ozone layer compared to the older, even more harmful refrigerants, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). CFCs have been largely eliminated thanks to the 1987 Montreal Protocol, which was established to protect the ozone layer, the essential shield in the atmosphere that protects against cancer-causing ultraviolet radiation.
But R-22 is 1,810 times more damaging to the climate than carbon dioxide, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Just one pound of the refrigerant is nearly as potent as a ton of carbon dioxide, the most common greenhouse gas, but while CO2 can remain in the atmosphere for more than 200 years, R-22 lasts about 12 years. R-22 air conditioners also have poor energy efficiency, and most of the electricity that powers them in Africa comes from fossil fuels.
Nigeria plans to phase out the R-22 refrigerant by January 1, 2030. But lax enforcement has raised doubts about whether the phase-out target will be met, according to Ajeigbe.
Newer air conditioners that use a family of gases called hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) do not harm the ozone layer and use less electricity. But HFCs are still potent greenhouse gases and are responsible for about 2 percent of all human-caused atmospheric warming.
One HFC, R-410A, which is still a common refrigerant in Europe and the United States, has a global warming potential 2,088 times greater than carbon dioxide and lasts about 30 years in the atmosphere. Air conditioners running on it are the second most common in Africa.
Another HFC, R-32, is 675 times more potent than CO2, lasts about five years in the atmosphere and is more energy efficient. But it is only “marginal” in the African market, Ajeigbe said.
According to salespeople and technicians in Abuja and Lagos, air conditioners that run on HFCs are more expensive and therefore less popular than the more polluting variants.
A broader problem
It’s not just Nigeria. In Ghana, the refrigeration industry is also struggling to get technicians to meet environmental standards.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the “poor maintenance practices prevalent in the country” are largely caused by consumers who, based on price, choose poorly trained technicians and ignore recommended standards.
In Kenya, demand for cooling systems is growing as temperatures rise, the population grows and access to electricity increases. Air conditioners that run on R-22 are still common in Kenya, but the National Environmental Management Authority told The Associated Press that there have been no new imports since 2021, in line with 2020 regulations.
Regulations require technicians who work with refrigerants and refrigeration equipment to be licensed. However, this requirement is not enforced, technicians told AP, leaving room for environmentally unfriendly practices.
“You just need to be well-educated and start installing. For us, who make a living from it, it is a very simple industry,” says Jeremiah Musyoka, a technician from Nairobi.
An energy efficient and less harmful refrigerant, R-290, is slowly gaining popularity as an alternative for refrigeration and air conditioning in developed markets such as the EU. Demand for efficient heat pumps is growing rapidly in the EU, but adoption in Africa remains insignificant due to cost barriers and limited awareness.
Countries like Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya have also identified R-290 as an eventual replacement for HFCs, but models that use it are not commercially available. And they still have to worry about specialized training for technicians due to R-290’s high flammability.
“I am concerned that there is not enough training and that existing regulations are not being enforced,” said Ajeigbe, a manager at Samsung. But he said enforcing the import ban on banned gases and the devices that use them would make a difference.
Anastasia Akhigbe, a senior regulator at Nigeria’s National Environmental Standards and Regulations Agency, added that it would also be helpful to raise awareness among appliance importers, technicians and consumers about the impact of certain refrigerants on the environment.
“Enforcement is a known challenge, but we are making gradual progress,” Akhigbe said.
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AP reporter Evelyne Musambi in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed to this report.
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