UN agency to help East Africa states adopt green housing to combat climate change

Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-27 22:27:16|Editor: Zhou Xin
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NAIROBI, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations agency on human settlements said Monday it will assist East Africa states to adopt green housing techniques as a way to promote climate change.

Fredrick Ochieng, Energy Expert at the UN-Habitat, told Xinhua in Nairobi that his agency is providing technical advice to the region on how to construct buildings that reduce energy consumption.

"The UN is implementing the regional program on promoting energy efficiency in buildings in East Africa so as to mainstream energy efficiency measures into the building codes, building policies and building practices," Ochieng said on the sidelines of the Stakeholders Forum on Validation of Kenya Building Research Institute Bill and Strategic Plan.

The UN-Habitat is conducting the exercise in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi where it hopes to catalyze the construction of 600,000 green buildings over a period of five years.

Ochieng noted that currently, construction and maintenance of houses consume 60 percent of all energy used in East African.

"We want to help the region to improve its efficiency as a way to reduce the amount of green house gases emitted into the atmosphere," he added.

The program on promoting green house principles is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and has provided technical assistance in the area of green building, house finance and national building codes for Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda as well as provided input in the development of new building permits in Tanzania.

The regional program also trained over 500 architects and quantity surveyors in the field of energy efficiency in buildings.

Ochieng noted that the program is responding to the need for more energy savings during the design, construction and operation of buildings.

One of the major achievements of the program is the adoption by 10 universities in East Africa of a handbook on sustainable building design for tropical countries as a constituent part of their teaching materials for architects.

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