According to a new report by K-CEP and partners, 55 countries have committed to reduce cooling emissions, either in their enhanced Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) or long-term climate plans. Of these 55 countries, only six included cooling commitments in their 2015 NDCs.
To date, national commitments to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have successfully bent the global emissions curve downward, but they are still projected to result in a global temperature rise of 2.6-3.1°C. These commitments, known as NDCs, are in the process of being enhanced ahead of COP26 later this year, and it is crucial that governments make ambitious pledges that will result in significant emissions reductions.
In this new brief, K-CEP, along with the Cool Coalition, CEA Consulting, and E3G, hopes to increase the understanding of how climate-friendly cooling can enhance NDCs, and to inspire more governments to include climate-friendly cooling in their national commitments.
The paper categorizes the types of action that countries can take to enhance their NDCs with climate-friendly cooling, summarizes the work being done in 10 countries as part of K-CEP’s NDC Support Facility for Efficient, Climate-Friendly Cooling, and signposts how an additional 45 countries (including the 27 members of the European Union) have included climate-friendly cooling in their updated NDCs.
Alongside the brief comes a think piece from K-CEP’s Executive Director, Jess Brown and the COP26 High Level Champions’ Cooling Sector Lead, Dan Hamza-Goodacre. The article looks at the importance of government action on efficient, climate-friendly cooling, and where we currently stand in terms of cooling commitments in enhanced NDCs.
With emissions from space cooling currently representing around 7% of global GHG emissions, and considering this figure is likely to double by 2050 if left unchecked, action on cooling offers significant potential to cut emissions and avoid up to 1°C of global warming by 2100.
