Africa struggles to regulate climate cooling systems industry as demand expands
Voice of America
People sell air conditioners on the street in Lagos, Nigeria, July 15, 2024. A man repairs air conditioners on the street in Lagos, Nigeria, July 15, 2024. A technician points at an R-22 refrigerant for an air conditioner while working in Lagos, Nigeria, July 18, 2024.
As the sun blazes down in Abuja, Ahmed Bukar turns on his home air conditioner to a blast of hot air. The cooling gas that the appliance runs on is leaking from the charging valve on the unit. A technician had recently helped him refill the air conditioner with gas, but he didn't test for possible leaks.
Screenshot of an X post showing bounty notice for Carmen Lau.
Loraine Mwanza, chairperson of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), speaks at the launch of the USAID-Funded MISA Freedom of Expression Report at the Protea Hotel in Lusaka, Dec. 17, 2024. (Kathy Short for VOA)
FILE - Former members of Syria's Bashar al-Assad's security forces wait in line to register for the identification and reconciliation process, after the ousting of al-Assad, in Aleppo, Syria, Dec. 23, 2024.
FILE - Police officers detain Alesya Marokhovskaya of the Vazhniye Istorii news outlet outside the Russia's Justice Ministry. The banner reads: "There are no foreign agents, there are journalists," in Moscow, Sept. 8, 2021.
Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba poses for photographs as he arrives for a press conference at the prime minister's office in Tokyo on Dec. 24, 2024.
FILE - Orphans and children separated from their parents in Kadugli gather to eat boiled leaves at an IDP Camp within the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) controlled area in Boram County, Nuba Mountains, South Kordofan, June 22, 2024. FILE - A WFP worker stands next to a truck carrying aid from Port Sudan to Darfur and other famine-stricken parts of Sudan, Nov. 12, 2024. (WFP/Abubakar Garelnabei/Handout via Reuters)
FILE - Students attend a class on media literacy at the Hiidenkiven Koulu school on November 19, 2024 in Helsinki, Finland. In Finland -- a country consistently ranked Europe's most media literate -- the skills needed to spot online hoaxes are on the school curriculum, amidst a boom of mis- and disinformation campaigns.
FILE - A flag of Shiite group Sayyid al-Shuhada is placed on the wall of the U.S. Embassy during a protest, in Baghdad, Iraq, Dec. 31, 2019.
FILE - This May 9, 2015, photo shows state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad's Tun Razak Exchange development in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Israeli emergency services work at the scene of a missile strike that, according to Israel's military, was launched from Yemen and landed in Jaffa, south of Tel Aviv, Israel, December 21, 2024.
FILE - Pope Francis opens the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Dec. 8, 2015. FILE - Pope Francis pushes open the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica, formally launching the Holy Year of Mercy, at the Vatican, Dec. 8, 2015. FILE - Pope Francis walks inside the Paliano detention center, south of Rome, April 13, 2017.