About the cooling sector
The cooling sector which generally refers to the Refrigeration, Air Conditioning, and Heat Pump sectors plays a crucial role in modern society, facilitating not only comfort in residential and commercial environments but also supporting food preservation, healthcare, and data centre operations and other critical industrial processes.
This sector encompasses a wide range of technologies designed to control temperature and humidity levels, utilizing various principles of thermodynamics to transfer heat efficiently and effectively. The significance of cooling systems is growing with an increasing dependence on these technologies due to climate change, rapid urbanization and population densities increase.
Traditional refrigeration and air conditioning systems often rely on ozone-depleting and high-global-warming-potential refrigerants and consume significant amounts of energy, contributing to both direct and indirect climate related emissions. Sustainability within the cooling sector is therefore critical to mitigate climate change, while at the time ensuring equal access to sustainable cooling solutions as the planet climate gets hotter.
The UNEP Global Cooling Watch Report Series (2023 and 2025) shows a pathway to enable greater access to sustainable cooling, while minimizing its climatic impact. While the technical solutions to reach near-zero emissions from the cooling sector by mid-century already exist, implementing integrated policy frameworks that address key pillars of cooling are the need of the hour. These include a mix of policy measures that seek action on enhanced energy efficiency in appliances, in built environments and those under development, as well as on the refrigerant transition to climate friendly alternatives.
