ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — As the sun sets in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, Ahmed Bukar turns on his home air conditioner to blow out warm air. The charging valve on the outdoor unit is leaking the refrigerant that powers the unit. A technician had recently helped him refill the air conditioner but did not test it for possible leaks.
In Abuja and across Nigeria, air conditioners are bursting from the walls as the appliance has transformed from a middle-class luxury to a necessity in an increasingly hot climate. The industry is governed by regulations that prohibit the release of refrigerant gases into the air, for example by leak testing after an appliance has been repaired. Still, routine release of gas into the atmosphere through poor installation, unsafe disposal at the end of use or the addition of gas without leak testing is a common problem in Nigeria, but it is illegal.
The gases known as refrigerants that power cooling systems have hundreds to thousands of times the heating power of carbon dioxide and, at their worst, are also damaging to the ozone layer. Following global agreements such as the Montreal Protocol and the Kigali Amendments that promised to limit the amount of these gases being released into the air, Nigeria has enacted regulations to guide their use. But enforcement is a problem and threatens Nigeria’s commitment to reducing emissions.
“These laws, these rules, no one enforces them,” said Abiodun Ajeigbe, director of Samsung’s air conditioning business in West Africa. “I haven’t seen any enforcement.”
‘I wasn’t taught’
According to Ajeigbe, the weak regulatory system for the refrigeration industry in Nigeria is evident in the widespread lack of proper training and awareness among technicians on the environmental damage caused by refrigerants. And it is common to see this.
Cyprian Braimoh, a technician working in the Karu area of Abuja, removed the air conditioner for a relocating client and then dispersed the gas in the air conditioner into the air and ensured that the air conditioner was refilled with fresh gas at the client’s new location.
If it had complied with the country’s regulations, it would have prevented or minimized the environmental damage caused by the gas by collecting it in a canister. Technicians like Braimoh and those who service Bukar’s device without leak testing are self-employed and unregulated. But they often win customers because they offer cheaper services.
“I wasn’t taught; I just put it in the air,” said Braimoh, who initially specialized in electrical installations in buildings before fixing air conditioners to increase his income options. He received piecemeal training that didn’t include the safety standards required for using the refrigerants. And yet he didn’t perform a leak test, required by the country’s refrigeration industry regulations, after installing the air conditioner at his client’s new location.
Installations by well-trained technicians who follow environmental regulations can be more costly for customers. This is often the case in Nigeria, where hiring the services of companies like Daibau, which then helped Bukar fix his leaks, can result in higher costs.
Ajeigbe said manufacturers who provide direct refrigeration and air conditioning installation services to large commercial customers are trying to regulate themselves by providing safety training and certifications to their technicians.
Powerful greenhouse gases
According to industry professionals and public records, 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 than older, even more harmful refrigerants called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). CFCs were largely eliminated thanks to the 1987 Montreal Protocol, which was created to protect the ozone layer, the vital shield in the atmosphere that protects against cancer-causing ultraviolet rays.
But R-22 is 1,810 times more climate-damaging than carbon dioxide, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Just one pound of the refrigerant is as potent as one ton of carbon dioxide, the most common greenhouse gas, but CO2 can stay in the atmosphere for more than 200 years, while R-22 stays in the atmosphere for about 12 years. R-22 air conditioners are also less energy efficient, and most of the electricity to run them in Africa comes from fossil fuels.
Nigeria plans to phase out R-22 refrigerant by January 1, 2030. However, Ajeigbe said achieving the phase-out target was doubtful due to lax enforcement.
Newer air conditioners that use a family of gases called hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) don’t harm the ozone layer and use less electricity. But HFCs are still powerful greenhouse gases and are responsible for about 2% of all human-caused warming in the atmosphere.
An HFC, R-410A, still a common refrigerant in Europe and the United States, has a heating potential 2,088 times greater than carbon dioxide and persists in the atmosphere for about 30 years. Air conditioners powered by it are 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 Ajeigbe said it was only “marginally” available in the African market.
According to dealers and technicians in Abuja and Lagos, air conditioners that run on HFC are more expensive, making them less popular than those that pollute more.
A wider problem
It’s not just Nigeria, the refrigeration industry in Ghana is also struggling to get technicians to comply with environmental standards.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the country’s “widespread poor service practices” are largely driven by consumers who choose low-training technicians out of concern for price and ignore recommended standards.
In Kenya, demand for cooling systems is increasing as temperatures rise, the population grows and access to electricity expands. R-22 air conditioners are still very common in Kenya, but the National Environmental Management Authority told The Associated Press that no new imports have been made since 2021 in line with 2020 regulations.
Technicians who spoke to the AP said regulations require technicians who handle refrigerants and cooling equipment to be licensed, but that is not enforced, creating room for environmentally damaging practices.
“You just need to get good training and start doing installations, it’s a very simple industry for us to make a living,” said Nairobi-based technician Jeremiah Musyoka.
R-290, an energy-efficient and less harmful refrigerant to the atmosphere, is slowly gaining traction as an alternative for cooling 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 negligible 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 using it are not commercially available. And they still have to worry about special training for technicians because of R-290’s high flammability.
“The lack of adequate training and enforcement of existing regulations concerns me,” said Ajeigbe, the executive at Samsung. But he said enforcing the import ban on banned gases and devices that use them would make a difference.
Anastasia Akhigbe, senior regulatory officer at the Nigerian National Environmental Standards and Regulations Agency, added that raising awareness among appliance importers, technicians and consumers on the environmental impacts of certain refrigerants would also be beneficial.
“We know that implementation 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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