Samuel Bello, Abuja
The Nigerian Building and Roads Research Institute (NBRRI) has said if proper ambitious actions to avoid locking in long-lived, inefficient buildings assets is not in place, the country would face local challenges including climate change, land-use, demographic shifts, Water and other resource scarcities.
NBRRI Director General, Danladi Matawal, who stated this during an interview with newsmen in Abuja, said by 2030, two billion additional urban inhabitants will be in the rapidly growing cities of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, thus the urgent need for sustainable buildings and construction through integrated and global approach.
According to the DG, time is running out to reform the buildings and construction sector’s energy performance, with the energy intensity per square meter of buildings needing to improve 30 percent by 2030.
“Nigeria needs to key in to the rest of the world to improvise innovative simple, cheap and user friendly solutions for the nation’s built environment satisfying the needs of the present without destroying the potentials of the future.
Matawal stressed the need to bring forward strategic policies and market incentives that signal the vital role of buildings, roads and construction in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“We need to build energy codes and certification because the deployment of improved building energy codes and polices, including certification, labeling and incentive programmes are needed in all countries, Nigeria especially.”
“Buildings and construction account for 39 percent of energy related emissions, when upstream power generation is included. Between 2010 and 2016, population growth, rising floor area per person and greater demand for energy services all contributed to an increase in new energy demand in buildings equal to all the final energy consumed by Germany during the same period.
“The clock is ticking in part because more than half of buildings construction expected to 2060 will be constructed in the next 20 years, two-third of them in countries that do not have mandatory building energy codes in place,” he said.
