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ECOWAS Status Report

| 64 A number of standards and labelling regulations for a variety of products remain under development. With the support of the World Bank, Benin aims to establish CFL standards by 2015; Burkina Faso plans to establish standards for efficient lighting; Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria are in the process of developing standards and labelling for household appliances; and Senegal has prepared draft MEPS for CFLs and is considering the development of labels for household electric products.64 At the international level, Ghana and Nigeria are engaged with the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, the International Organization for Standardization, and a network of 20 countries to develop international standards for cook stoves and clean cooking solutions.65 To date, only a handful of countries worldwide have developed any national standards for clean cook stoves, with none currently established within the ECOWAS region.66 International standards for lighting are also in development through the en.lighten initiative which seeks to establish harmonised MEPS for on and off-grid lighting options to serve as a blueprint for increasing the use of energy efficient lamps. Mandates and/or quotas for the use of energy-efficient equipment or fuels are now in place in 2 of the 15 ECOWAS Member States, and the use of incandescent light bulbs has been the focus of several national mandates. Ghana has banned the manufacture, sale, or importation of incandescent filament lamps since 2008.67 In addition, Ghana has prohibited the importation and sale of used cooling equipment, including refrigerators, refrigerator-freezers, freezers, and air conditioners.68 Since 2011, Senegal has outlawed both the importation and manufacturing of incandescent light bulbs and has developed a biomass quota system in an effort to reduce the dependence on forest resources for cooking fuels.69 Financing remains one of the largest barriers to implementing energy efficiency projects within the region. A variety of financial incentives have been established in an effort to overcome this challenge. Although many projects have secured support from a mix of domestic and international sources, policy programmes to provide financial incentives to energy efficiency development are not widely utilised. Ghana provides credits of USD 70 (GHS 200) towards the cost of a new refrigerator with the trade-in of the old model.70 Tax incentives have also been implemented in some countries across the region: for example, the Gambia removed import taxes on CFLs, and Ghana has removed both import duties and the VAT on LED lighting.71

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