Report sees climate risk from rise in Indian AC units

Report sees climate risk from rise in Indian AC units

News:

1. According to the report Solving the Global Cooling Challenge, by 2022, India is expected to have a fourth of the world’s air conditioning units.

Important facts

About the Report:

2. The report was released by environment minister of India at the Global Cooling Innovation Summit held in Delhi (12^th-13^th November, 2018)
3. The report has been prepared by US-based Rocky Mountain Institute

Major findings of the Report:

4. By 2050, room air conditioning units will increase from 1.2 billion to 4.5 billion in the world
5. India will witness a phenomenal growth during the period – from 26.3 million installed stock of room air conditioner (RAC) units in 2016 to over 1 billion in 2050.
6. Per capita space cooling energy consumption in India will increase from 69 kWh in 2016 to 1,140 kWh in 2050.
7. This projected jump in air conditioning units will need three times more electricity by 2050 from the 2016 level. Further, if the same air conditioning technology continues to used, the earth’s temperature will rise by 0.5 degree through use of cooling units alone.

About Global Cooling Innovation Summit

8. The summit aims to create an ecosystem of public-private-partnership to work for breakthrough innovations in energy efficient cooling technology
9. The event has been organized by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, along with Rocky Mountain Institute, Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE), Conservation X Labs and CEPT University
10. The Global Cooling Prize has been launched at the Summit

About Global Cooling Price

11. It is an international competition to incentivise the development of a residential cooling technology that will have at least five times less climate impact than the standard Room Air Conditioning (RAC)
12. The winning technology will be awarded at least US$1 million to support its incubation and early-stage commercialization.A winning technology is expected toprevent up to 100 gigatons (GT) of CO2-equivalent emissions by 2050,
13. The prize is supported by Mission Innovation, the Government of India through the Department of Science and Technology and its partner organizations namely Ministry of Power, Bureau of Energy Efficiency, and Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change

Additional information: India’s Commitment to Phase out HFCs

In 2016, India signed the Kigali Agreement which seeks to “substantially phase” out a potent greenhouse gas, called hydrofluorocarbons (HFC), by 2045 and thus aims to prevent a potential 0.5 C rise in global temperature by 2050.