By Gloria Dickie
DUBAI (Reuters) -The United States, Canada and Kenya were among 63 countries that joined a pledge to deeply cut cooling-related emissions at the United Nations climate summit in Dubai on Tuesday.
The Global Cooling Pledge marks the world’s first collective focus on climate-warming emissions from cooling, including food and drug refrigeration and air conditioning.
It requires countries to reduce their cooling-related emissions by at least 68% below 2022 levels by 2050, along with a range of other targets, including setting minimum energy performance standards by 2030.
“We want to chart a path to reduce cooling-related emissions across all sectors, but increase access to sustainable cooling,” US Climate Envoy John Kerry told COP28.
About 1.2 billion people who need cooling still don’t have access. Installed capacity is expected to triple by mid-century, due to rising temperatures, growing populations and rising incomes.
“Imagine a slum, an informal settlement, the houses made of corrugated iron and air conditioning on the side,” Freetown Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr of Sierra Leone told a COP28 press conference.
“Everyone’s aspiration as temperatures rise and incomes rise is to have their wealth measured by their cooling.”
But all those extra ACs double the climate crisis, with refrigeration emissions expected to reach between 4.4 billion and 6.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2050, according to a report from a United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) coalition. who also developed the pledge together with the UAE’s COP28 presidency.
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“People buy a very cheap air conditioner made somewhere in Asia for a hundred dollars and plug it in,” says Jürgen Fischer, president of climate solutions at Danish multinational Danfoss, which specializes in heating and cooling. “That will put a heavy burden on the energy system and there will be a collapse.”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea to allow these individual plugins anymore,” he said.
Reuters was the first to report US support for the cooling pledge, suggesting there could be a process to introduce more regulations or incentives for the industry in the United States.
India, which is likely to see the biggest growth in cooling demand in coming decades, still had not joined the pledge as of Tuesday morning.
Indian government officials previously told Reuters they were unwilling to undertake targets beyond those set in 1992 under the multilateral Montreal Protocol to regulate the production and consumption of ozone-depleting chemicals and hydrofluorocarbons used in refrigeration .
Nearly three-quarters of the potential for reducing cooling emissions by mid-century can be found in the G20 countries, the UNEP report said.
“The countries that are signing up… are now taking real action and working with industry to implement sustainable solutions,” Danfoss’ Fischer said.
At least 118 countries also support another COP28 pledge to triple renewable energy and double energy efficiency by 2030.
Progress in achieving the cooling pledge goals will be monitored annually until 2030, with check-ins at the annual UN climate summits.
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