A technician positions an R-22 refrigerant on an outdoor air conditioning unit in Lagos, Nigeria, Thursday, July 18, 2024. – As the sun blazes down in Nigeria's capital Abuja, Ahmed Bukar turns on his home air conditioner to a blast of hot air. The charging valve on the outside unit is leaking out the cooling gas that the appliance runs on. A technician had recently helped him refill the air conditioner with gas, but he didn’t test for possible leaks.
After uninstalling an air conditioner for a client who was moving to another neighborhood, Cyprian Braimoh, a technician in Abuja’s Karu district, casually frittered the gas from the unit into the air, preparing it to be refilled with fresh gas at the client's new location. Nigeria plans to phase out the R-22 refrigerant by January 1, 2030. But with lax enforcement, meeting the phaseout target is in doubt, Ajeigbe said.
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 just “marginally” in the African market, Ajeigbe said. In Kenya, the demand for cooling systems is growing as temperatures warm, the population grows and electricity access expands. Air conditioners running on R-22 are still very common in Kenya, but the National Environmental Management Authority told The Associated Press there have not been new imports since 2021, in line with 2020 regulations.
One cooling gas that's energy efficient and less harmful to the atmosphere, R-290, is slowly gaining traction as an alternative for refrigeration and air conditioning in developed markets like the EU. Thefor efficient heat pumps is rapidly expanding in the EU, but adoption in Africa remains insignificant due to cost barriers and limited awareness.