West African home owners soon to offer ‘Nubian vault’ climate credits

French organisation, Association la Voûte Nubienne (AVN), has enabled the construction of over 7,000 of ‘Nubian vault’ climate-friendly houses in Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, Mauritania, Ghana and Benin since the year 2000, using the 3000 year-old Nubian Vault traditional technique originating in Upper-Egypt.

Anne-Cécile Ragot, the project lead at AVN, says every one of these arched homes built in the Sahel saves on the carbon emissions usually associated with construction and indoor cooling. A few years ago, Ragot and her team began wondering if they could use this fact to scale up construction: could the carbon savings from one family’s Nubian Vault fund the construction of another?

They managed to secure support from the UNDP-Adaptation Fund Climate Innovation Accelerator (AFCIA) to answer this question. AFCIA grants are intended to help accelerate innovative technologies, practices and business models for local adaptation, by tapping into the incredible potential of NGOs, civil society, women and young innovators.