Report sees climate risk from rise in Indian AC units

Report sees climate risk from rise in Indian AC units

According to a report publish in 2018 by the Rocky Mountain Institute warns that by 2022, India is likely to have a fourth of the world’s air conditioning units, and the risks to climate from this could be huge. The report was released by environment minister of India at the Global Cooling Innovation Summit held in Delhi (12^th-13^th November, 2018). It has been prepared by US-based Rocky Mountain Institute

Key findings of the Report

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.

Per capita space cooling energy consumption in India will increase from 69 kWh in 2016 to 1,140 kWh in 2050. By 2050, room air conditioning units will increase from 1.2 billion to 4.5 billion in the world

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.

Global Cooling Innovation Summit

Inaugurated by Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan the first Global Cooling Innovation Summit was held in New Delhi. The summit was jointly organised by Department of Science and Technology along with Alliance for An Energy-Efficient Economy (AEEE), Rocky Mountain Institute, Conservation X Labs and CEPT University.

The summit aims to create an ecosystem of public-private-partnership to work for breakthrough innovations in energy efficient cooling technology. 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.

Global Cooling Prize

The Ministry of science and technology instituted a new prize for innovative cooling technologies that could reduce the climate impact of Residential Air Conditioning (RAC) at least by five times. The Price 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).

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, 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.