POLICY DEVELOPMENT

ECREEE is assisting the fifteen ECOWAS Member States in the development, adoption and implementation of national renewable energy and energy efficiency policies and targets, regulatory frameworks, standards (e.g. for appliances, generation equipment and building codes), as well as incentives (e.g. tax exemption, public procurement, portfolio standards) and financial mechanisms (e.g. feed-in tariffs, net metering, investment subsidies).

The Centre is focusing on the electricity sector as well as other sectors (e.g. cooking, sustainable biofuels) and deals equally with grid-connected (e.g. IPPs, loss management) and off-grid issues relevant to rural areas (e.g. stand-alone systems, mini-grids).

As a major milestone, the Centre developed the ECOWAS Renewable Energy Policy (EREP) and the ECOWAS Energy Efficiency Policy (EEEP). Both documents were adopted by the ECOWAS Ministers on Energy during the ECOWAS High Level Energy Forum, held from 29 to 31 October 2012, in Accra, Ghana. Over the next few years, ECREEE will facilitate and monitor the implementation of the regional policies, at the  national level, among all ECOWAS countries. The regional policies include an obligation for the countries to propose national action plans and measures which respond to the set regional targets by 2030.

Meanwhile, laudable progess has been achieved in some ECOWAS countries., Ghana, Cape Verde and Senegal, in particular,  have made considerable progress in formulating and implementing policies, laws, standards and incentive schemes. The Gambia and Guinea Bissau have launched similar processes. Updated data on the status of integration of sustainable energy policies and incentives is available in the country profiles of the ECOWAS Observatory for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECOWREX).

Further information on workshops, conferences and events organized by ECREEE in this context can be found here.

The ECREEE Business Plan aims to achieve the following results by 2016:  

• Develop and adopt one regional renewable energy policy and one energy efficiency policy
• Develop and pass RE laws in all ECOWAS Members States
• Ensure that national minimum renewable energy targets (MRET), adopted in all ECOWAS Member States are binding
• Achieve 25% MRET across the Member States
• Develop five RE&EE support policies/strategies devoted to rural and peri-urban electrification/energy
• Achieve a 50% rate of adoption of national EE standards and labelling standards.