African governments to roll out green houses

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UN Habitat said on Friday it plans to partner with African governments in order to roll out green houses in the continent.

Vincent Kitio, chief urban energy unit at UN-Habitat, said in Nairobi that Africa cannot be the next frontier if it continues to develop houses that pollute the environment.

“We believe in the next five years all buildings standing in Africa should be green houses and be able to generate energy for their household use,” Kitio said during the first UN-Habitat Assembly that ends on Friday in Nairobi.

Kitio said that some east African countries have made progress in developing policies to promote green buildings.

The UN agency has already developed a lot of tools, guide books, technical notes and a charter with a list of principles that can be implemented by countries to catalyze their transition toward green housing.

The UN official said that moving towards green buildings has a number of challenges which can however be overcome.

“One of the key hurdles for the adoption of green buildings is the high upfront cost associated with renewable energy technology,” he said.

According to Kitio, in order to build green houses, the real estate sector must be trained to design green buildings.

“We can overcome this challenge by investing in education and conducting a review of curriculum of schools of architecture to promote sustainable building designs,” he said.