The Case for Sustainable Cooling

Cooling is rapidly becoming one of the defining challenges of sustainable development in a warming world. As stated by UN Secretary-General António Guterres in his 2024 Call to Action on Extreme Heat, rising populations, urbanization, higher incomes, and escalating global temperatures are driving soaring demand for cooling. Yet this is a double-edged sword: while cooling is essential to protect people’s health, ensure food safety, and sustain economic productivity, unchecked growth risks a vicious cycle of increased energy use and emissions, further accelerating climate change. Today, cooling accounts for a fifth of global electricity consumption and is a top driver of new power generation capacity. Without urgent action, cooling-related emissions could more than double by 2050, reaching up to 6.1 billion tons of CO₂e and representing over 10% of global emissions. At the same time, around 1.2 billion people still lack access to vital cooling services, impacting vulnerable populations and risking lives through food spoilage and vaccine loss. Delivering sustainable cooling can slash emissions, save trillions in energy costs, and drive progress across the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Cool Coalition

Launched by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) at the First Global Conference on Synergies between the 2030 Agenda and Paris Agreement in 2019, the Cool Coalition is a global network uniting over 250 governments, businesses, cities, and financial institutions to advance integrated action on sustainable cooling. The Cool Coalition promotes a reduce-shift-improve-protect holistic and cross-sectoral approach to meet the cooling needs of both industrialized and developing countries through urban form, better building design, energy efficiency, renewables, and thermal storage, as well as phasing down HFCs. By doing so, the Coalition supports the delivery of the Paris Agreement, the Montreal Protocol, and the SDGs. In 2023, the Cool Coalition produced the Global Cooling Watch, now a biennial UNEP publication and the first science-based roadmap to achieving near-zero emissions in the cooling sector.

The Global Cooling Pledge

At the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), the Cool Coalition launched the Global Cooling Pledge. Currently boasting over 70 country Signatories and 80 non-state supporters, the Pledge represents the world’s first collective commitment to reducing cooling-related emissions by over 60% by 2050, while also expanding equitable access to cooling. It is anchored in the science of the Global Cooling Watch and lays out 14 national targets, including National Cooling Action Plans, passive and nature-based solutions, building energy codes, higher efficiency standards, and refrigerant phase-down.