India Cooling Action Plan

Cooling is linked with economic growth and is recognised as key for the health and well-being of people in hot climates. India is a growing economy characterized by low penetration of airconditioning, rising per capita income, rapid urbanization and a largely tropical climate, which would lead to rise in the requirement for cooling. Addressing the rising cooling requirement provides a challenge as well as a unique opportunity, by allowing synergies in policies and actions to address the cooling requirement across sectors, while making it sustainable and accessible
to all.

Increasingly, cooling is recognized as a developmental need that is linked with achieving many Sustainable Development Goals. A large part of the cooling demand is catered through refrigerantbased cooling globally across sectors such as buildings, cold-chain, refrigeration and transport. Refrigerants used in cooling equipment are regulated under the Montreal Protocol regime.

Another important aspect related to refrigerant-based cooling is energy use. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), refrigeration and air conditioning (RAC) causes 10% of the global CO2 emissions. That being said, India has one of the lowest access to cooling across the world, which is reflected in its low per-capita levels of energy consumption for space cooling, at 69 kWh, as compared to the world-average of 272 kWh