From Passive Cooling to Demand-Side Flexibility: Cool Coalition at SBCS26

The Cool Coalition convened more than 25 organisations around demand-side flexibility, one of the most underutilised levers in the energy transition. Residential air conditioning alone places 600 GW of peak load on grids worldwide, while only 60 GW of building demand response is currently active. Closing that gap is increasingly recognised as a priority for grid resilience, climate ambition, and the wider energy transition.

To advance the agenda, the Action Hub on Demand-Side Flexibility was launched at the Summit, co-led by UNEP, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), and the China Association of Building Energy Efficiency (CABEE). The Hub will build the evidence base, convene the actors who need to be at the table, and feed into the forthcoming UNEP–IRENA flagship publication Turning Energy Demand into a Resource.

Three priorities emerged from the workshop discussions. There is a clear gap between technology and regulation, with most markets still failing to reward flexibility from buildings. Grid and building regulators will need to start talking to each other if that gap is to close. Geography also matters. Emerging markets, where weak metering, constrained grids and surging cooling demand intersect, face the sharpest need and the steepest barriers, and getting demand-side flexibility right in those markets is where the agenda will be tested. Participation in the conversation also needs to broaden. Financial institutions, manufacturers, and large energy consumers should be shaping this agenda rather than watching it unfold from the sidelines. Strong engagement at the Summit from Chinese institutions, including the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Energy Foundation China, and the China Academy of Building Research, signalled where the agenda is headed.

The Cool Coalition also presented the Be Cool India experience, setting out what it has taken to move passive cooling from pilot to policy across five Indian states (Delhi, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh) and how the approach can travel. Delivered by UNEP with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Be Cool is demonstrating that simplified minimum energy performance standards for passive cooling can work at scale without overcomplicating compliance for developers or regulators.

Several lessons emerged from the experience. Streamlined performance standards work in practice when they do not overburden the actors expected to apply them, and simplification has proven essential to scale. Private sector uptake accelerates when the focus shifts from selling technology to building ecosystems, with long-term handholding, market activation, and financing models that de-risk first movers. The technical solutions themselves are also ready, with evaporative cooling and climate-responsive design mature enough for deployment in affordable and middle-income housing in hot climates today.

A theme running through both Cool Coalition sessions was that the most climate-intelligent solutions are often already embedded in local building traditions, materials, and urban form. Passive cooling is not a new idea. It is an old one that needs to be scaled, urgently.

A significant milestone at SBCS26 was the first in-person Technical Meeting of the ICBC, which brought together country-designated Senior Representatives from 30 countries, including France, Brazil, Kenya, Germany, Türkiye, China, Somalia, and Morocco. Building on the momentum of the Ministerial at COP30 in Belém, the meeting provided a dedicated space to exchange experiences, take stock of progress on the Déclaration de Chaillot, and align on the processes that will guide the ICBC's work going forward.

Cooling, energy efficiency standards, and peer learning on policy design were central to the discussions, exactly the kind of country-level exchange the Cool Coalition has been working to enable. The Technical Meeting identified country-specific needs that will shape the forthcoming ICBC Country Dialogues. For the buildings and cooling agenda, this is where knowledge sharing translates into implementation.