For long, developing countries have been dumping sites for low quality and inefficient energy products with poor performance. For the case of refrigerators and air conditioners, this negatively impacts the environment and incur a cost to the user.  For instance, some families have the fridges but do not use them due to the high operation costs. In the East African region, chlorofluorocarbons and hydro chlorofluorocarbons are still being used as refrigerants yet they impose negative effects on the environment.

As a counter measure, the East African Centre of Excellence for Renewable Energy and Efficiency (EACREEE) with support from the United Nations Environment Programme-United for Efficiency (UNEP-U4E) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) is developing Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) for residential refrigerators and room air conditioners for the East African Community. The MEPS for residential refrigerators and room air conditioners are funded by the UNEP-U4E

From the 25^th to 27^th March 2024, EACREEE conducted a three-day national consultation workshop in Uganda on the draft MEPS. This marked the end of the national consultations in the EAC partner states, a key milestone in the development of regional MEPS. A similar exercise was conducted in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan and Tanzania. The national consultations will be followed by regional harmonization workshop, adoption and gazetting. Once gazetted, the MEPS will put in place requirements for acceptable deviations in measured and rated energy performance, volume of compartments and operation temperature among others for residential refrigerators and room air conditioners.

This work adds to the EAC Regional MEPS for lighting (lamp and luminaires) that were previously developed by EACREEE and adopted by the East African Community in July 2022. The reference numbers for the EAC Regional MEPS for lighting are; EAS 1064-1:2022, Lighting Products- Minimum Energy Performance Standards - Part 1- Lamps (1^st Edition), and EAS 1064-2:2022, Lighting Products- Minimum Energy Performance Standard – Part 2- Luminaires (1^st Edition). So far Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda have gazetted the MEPS for lighting developed under the Energy Efficient Lighting and Appliances (EELA) project funded by the Government of Sweden through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). The EELA project is implemented by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) with EACREEE and SADC Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (SACREEE).