Green cooling and energy efficiency

While India’s current per capita cooling energy consumption is about one-fourth of the global average, it is growing rapidly. In the next two decades, cooling demand is expected to grow 8 times and cooling energy requirement 4.5 times. This poses a dual-threat for climate change – greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from fossil-fuel-based energy required for cooling, as well as from high Global Warming Potential (GWP) refrigerants like HFCs. Strategies for green cooling thus should be multi-faceted covering energy efficiency, natural refrigerants, and not-in-kind RAC technologies.

The Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol recognises linkages between improving the energy efficiency with the refrigerant transition. The India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP) rolled out in 2019, also sets ambitious targets for reducing cooling and energy demand over the next 20 years. Our work is focussed on supporting the implementation of ICAP and pushing for ambition at the Montreal Protocol.