Harmonised Standards: How to Unlock More Efficient Appliance Markets

A few weeks ago, Efficiency for Access team members, Emmanuel Aziebor, Senior Director of the Africa program at CLASP, and Shaikh Wase Khalid, Clean Energy Access Manager at CLASP, attended the 8th Meeting of the International Solar Alliance Regional Committee for the Africa Region in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.

Aziebor spoke as a panelist at an event on the harmonisation of standards, sharing insights on how standards can translate into real impact for consumers, businesses, and economies.

His message was clear: setting standards is only the starting point.

For energy-efficient appliances, standards need to be supported by effective certification, market-entry controls, customs processes, enforcement, and market surveillance.

The opportunity is significant. More efficient appliances can lower energy costs for households and businesses, while reduced electricity demand can help countries avoid additional generation capacity and potentially free up resources for other development priorities.

But there is another important part of the equation: the consumer.

Aziebor highlighted Ghana, where the Energy Commission works with hotels, industries and other large buyers to build awareness of minimum performance standards and encourage them to choose products that meet those requirements.

“A standard is only as strong as the enforcement behind it. To build efficient appliance markets, we need strong standards, effective market surveillance, and informed consumers who know what to buy.”

The lessons from Ghana can be adapted across many African markets. As appliance and distributed energy technology markets grow, better-informed buyers can help create stronger demand for quality and efficient products, complementing government regulation and enforcement.

This also points to a broader opportunity from harmonising standards: creating larger, more predictable markets for high-performing products across Africa, while protecting consumers and accelerating access to efficient technologies.

As Aziebor emphasised:

“Energy efficiency is not just about setting standards. It is about creating a market where good products can enter, poor-performing products are kept out, and consumers have the knowledge to make the right choice.”

The path from standards to impact requires action across the entire market ecosystem, and Africa has a significant opportunity to build these systems at scale.