New major milestone! Egypt and Lebanon signed the Adoption and Acknowledgement of one of the first EPC scheme for buildings in the MENA region

Major milestone reached in the BUILD_ME project at the COP28:

One of the first Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) for buildings in the MENA region has been developed. Entities from Egypt and Lebanon have decided to implement the EPC scheme in their countries to reduce emissions in the built environment.

In the framework of the BUILD_ME project, an announcement of the adoption of the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) in by Lebanese Center for Energy Conservation – LCEC of Lebanon and Housing and Building National Research Center - HBRC of Egypt took place after our project’s side event at COP28.

This event convened on the 6^th of December in Dubai as a part of the 2023 UN Climate Change Conference 28th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP28). The signing ceremony of the adoption and acknowledgement of the EPCs schemes was executed with the participation of our national partners: Prof. Dr. Mohamed Massoud, the HBRC chairman, Prof. Dr. Ashraf Kamal, Professor of Urban Planning & Economics at HBRC representing Egypt and Mr. Pierre El Khoury, General Director of LCEC representing Lebanon.

The national partners, HBRC & LCEC will own and manage the roll out of the EPCs schemes in their respective countries: Egypt and Lebanon after the project lifetime of BUILD_ME. It is expected that the certificate will support the target countries’ activities towards energy efficient building sector and better facilitate green finance to energy efficient building projects. With a voluntary start in Egypt and “even” a mandatory integration of the EPCs in the licencing process for new buildings in Lebanon.

The Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) will play a significant role in promoting transparency concerning the energy performance of the buildings sector. These certificates will serve as catalysts for financial initiatives and are instrumental in the establishment of a comprehensive national database, which, in turn, informs policies and national action plans.

This major milestone will be followed soon with various trainings of different target groups including EPC Experts, EPC Auditors, Finance and Project developers as well as EPC owners which represent the local entities in the target countries. These trainings are starting to roll out in Lebanon with the first targeted training conducted in the first quarter of 2024.

The BUILD_ME project is financed by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) The project is a promising step towards achieving highly efficient buildings in the MENA region with collaboration with Housing and Building National Research Center (HBRC), Integrated Development Group (IDG), Royal Scientific Society in Jordan (RSS), Lebanese Center for Energy Conservation (LCEC) and the Intergovernmental Partner (RCREEE). The project began in October 2016 and is now in its 3rd phase ending in March 2025.

For more information about our project and trainings, contact the BUILD_ME team!