Key Policy Interventions

Governments can implement a variety of policies and programs to mainstream passive cooling practices:

Drive a cultural shift in the building sector through education and incentives. This could involve developing training programs and guidelines for architects, builders, and city planners on passive cooling techniques appropriate to local climates. Competitions or awards can raise the profile of these solutions. Financial incentives might include tax credits or grants for developments that exceed code with passive strategies, or concessional green finance for projects explicitly incorporating nature-based cooling. 

Public awareness campaigns (e.g., demonstrations of how a well-shaded home stays cooler than an unshaded one) can increase demand from homeowners for passive improvements. By building local capacity and demand for passive solutions, these “soft” measures ensure the longevity and uptake of passive cooling beyond any single project or mandate.

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Update building energy codes and construction standards to require or incentivize passive cooling features in new buildings. This may include mandating minimum insulation levels, reflective (high albedo) roofing materials in hot climates, adequate ventilation openings, and shading for windows (through overhangs, louvers, or vegetation). For example, building code revisions in Nigeria explicitly include passive cooling elements like orientation and shading, and India’s national cooling plan calls for passive design guidelines. 

Policymakers can also develop tropical design standards that ensure new affordable housing is built with materials and layouts optimized for cooling. Compliance can be encouraged via green building certification or expedited permits for projects that surpass passive design criteria. By locking in cooler building envelopes from the start, these codes reduce the need for air conditioning over the building’s life.

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Launch initiatives to increase the reflectivity of roofs and pavements, especially in urban areas. Cool roofs, which use white or high-reflectance coatings, tiles, or membranes, reflect more sunlight and absorb less heat, keeping indoor spaces and cities cooler. Policies can mandate cool roofing on public buildings and new commercial constructions, provide rebates or subsidies for homeowners to repaint or retrofit roofs with reflective coatings, and include cool materials in reconstruction programs. 

Cities like New York and New Delhi have implemented cool roof programs that showed measurable temperature and energy benefits. Similarly, cool (high-albedo) pavements in parking lots and roads can lower surrounding air temperatures. Scaling such programs, particularly in heat-prone urban centres, yields quick wins in passive cooling and engages communities in climate-resilient upgrades.

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Develop and implement financial mechanisms that lower the upfront cost and encourage adoption of passive cooling measures across buildings and cities.

These can include grants, rebates, concessional loans, and support for builders and homeowners adopting low-energy cooling designs. Bulk procurement, tax benefits, and inclusion of passive cooling in green building certification schemes can further promote uptake.

When tied to national green finance or climate funds, these measures attract public and private investment, making passive cooling more affordable and scalable.

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Governments can lead by example by retrofitting public buildings for better passive cooling and by incorporating passive design in social housing projects. Demonstration projects that retrofit an existing structure with measures like reflective paint, added insulation, and natural ventilation shafts can showcase how indoor temperatures drop and energy use declines. Such pilots build the business case for passive retrofits in the private sector as well. Likewise, ensuring that new mass housing schemes for low-income populations are built according to passive cooling principles can dramatically improve comfort for those who may not have air conditioners.Policymakers might provide design templates or cooling kit packages for use in housing upgrades. 

By focusing on public and low-income buildings, this intervention also advances equity, delivering thermal comfort to all segments of society.

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Integrate cooling considerations into urban planning through more green spaces, tree planting, and water features. Trees and parks act as natural air conditioners, shading buildings and cooling the air via evapotranspiration. City policies can include ambitious urban forestry targets, preservation of green belts, and the creation of cooling corridors, that is continuous stretches of parks or tree-lined streets that channel cooler air into dense neighbourhoods. Rooftop and façade greening are other nature-based solutions to insulate buildings and reduce local ambient temperatures. 

Many cities are now developing heat action plans that prioritize such nature-based passive cooling. These nature-based policies not only reduce heat but also improve air quality, stormwater management, and urban biodiversity, offering a holistic co-benefit profile.

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Policy Resources

Policy area
Climate Action Network (CAN)

Nature-based solutions in action: lessons from the frontline. Harnessing nature to address the triple emergency of poverty, climate change and biodiversity loss

The report showcases 13 global case studies where nature-based solutions (NbS) help address climate, biodiversity, and development challenges. While not passive cooling–specific, NbS such as watershed restoration, agroecology, and flood management demonstrate landscape-scale cooling co-benefits through shading, evapotranspiration, and microclimate regulation. It emphasizes success factors like integrated approaches, long-term planning, and community participation.
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Copenhagen Centre for Energy Efficiency (C2E2)

Green and blue spaces – Contribution to reducing cooling demand and increasing resilience in cities. An analysis of urban contexts in fast-developing countries

Examines how nature-based solutions (green roofs, walls, urban forests, blue zones) and energy efficiency reduce urban heat, with co-benefits for resilience and emissions reduction. Focuses on policy and planning conditions and business models for integrating these solutions in fast-growing cities, with case studies from Rajkot and Mombasa.
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GIZ

Mainstreaming Nature-based Solutions in Planning, Design, and Operation of Infrastructure in Ghana

Investigates the barriers and enablers to mainstreaming green infrastructure (GI) in the peri-urban areas of sub-Saharan Africa and identifies eight overarching categories of interconnected barriers to GI implementation. The analysis, based on surveys in drought-prone Windhoek and flood-prone Dar es Salaam, details how these barriers differ across local (household) and national governance levels.
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GIZ

Catalysing Finance and Insurance for Nature-based Solutions : A collection of case studies from around the world

Report focuses on Nature-based Solutions (NbS) as a critical response to the escalating risks posed by environmental degradation and nature loss.The document addresses the current, insufficient level of capital flowing into NbS by showcasing a collection of successful, credible business cases from around the world.It highlights how NbS, such as restoring mangroves and implementing agroforestry, offer attractive business cases by generating substantial benefits in disaster reduction, climate adaptation, and biodiversity.
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GIZ

Analysis and Documentation of Experiments on Cool Roofs and Walls in KwaZulu-Natal : Final Report

Documents and analyzes the results of controlled experiments on cool roof and wall technologies conducted in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The core of the document presents the measured efficacy of the technology in reducing indoor temperatures and lowering cooling energy consumption at two distinct experimental sites. The findings highlight the significant potential for cool coatings to improve thermal comfort and reduce peak electricity demand in warm coastal climates.
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GIZ

Climate and employment impacts of sustainable building materials in the context of development cooperation

Analyzes the significant impact of embodied carbon emissions in the construction sector, shifting focus from operational to full lifecycle impact. It assesses ten alternative, sustainable building materials, including mass timber and innovative cement, for their environmental impact and suitability across various urban typologies. The document evaluates their potential for closed-loop production and discusses manufacturing and employment impacts, particularly in the Global South.
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Value chain approach

Ways to apply these policies for better outcome and climate impact.

Value-Chain-Wide Support

Achieving maximum energy efficiency gains in cooling requires considering and aligning all stages of the value chain - the full life cycle of a product or process, including material sourcing, production, consumption and recycling/disposal processes. The value-chain approach allows the complexity of the sector to be broken down into phases and sequences of decisions and actions taken by stakeholders throughout the value chain while maintaining an integrated approach to the system as a whole.

On the supply side, manufacturers need requirements and incentives to produce high-efficiency models and to invest in improved components (compressors, inverters, refrigerants that also boost efficiency).

Distributors and retailers should understand what products are efficient and be mandated or incentivized to stock and promote these.

Utilities and energy regulators also play a role: they can design tariffs or demand-response programs to encourage efficient cooling (for instance, offering lower rates for off-peak pre-cooling or providing free energy audits to large consumers).

On the demand side, consumers and end users need to be informed of the benefits and persuaded to buy more efficient products.

During use phase of cooling equipment, users need be be nudged towards behaviours that result in more efficient operation and electricity consumption.

Financing mechanisms need to be accessible along the chain, from loans for manufacturers retooling factories, to installment payment plans for consumers buying efficient appliances.

In short, value-chain-wide support ensures that efficiency policies are not just mandates on paper, but are backed by market readiness and stakeholder ability to comply and follow. This holistic approach leads to sustainable transformation, where efficient cooling becomes the default norm supported by industry, utilities, and consumers alike.

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Climate Impacts

Space cooling is already one of the fastest-growing uses of electricity worldwide. Cooling accounts for about 20% of electricity consumption in buildings today, and without efficiency improvements, cooling demand could increase by 40% or more by 2030. This growth would lock in additional fossil-fuel power generation and billions of tons of CO₂ emissions. Inefficient air-conditioners also exacerbate peak load spikes, leading to blackouts and expensive grid upgrades. 

By contrast, higher efficiency cooling could massively curb emissions – combined with refrigerant action and passive measures, efficiency improvements are part of the strategy to cut projected 2050 cooling emissions by over 60%. Efficient ACs and refrigerators lower the carbon footprint per cooling output and reduce air pollution from power plants. They also directly save consumers money on energy bills. According to the IEA, the average AC sold today is less than half as efficient as the best available models, indicating huge room for improvement. 

Implementing strong efficiency policies globally could avoid building hundreds of new power plants, prevent up to 2.5 Gt CO₂ annually by 2050, and make cooling more affordable and accessible.

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