Increase in global temperature, population growth, rise in income and urbanization will soon lead to an astounding five-fold increase in energy demand for room air conditioners in countries which are not members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a recent study has found.
India is not a member of the OECD, though it works closely with the intergovernmental economic organisation in which the US, the UK, Australia and France are among the members.
The study titled 'Solving the Global Cooling Challenge Report' by Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), a leading research institute in the area, was inaugurated by Union Minister Harsh Vardhan here on Monday.
The report provides a call to action for a breakthrough innovation to solve the cooling challenge and finds that in conjunction with supportive long-term policy measures, it would lead to a reduction in cooling-related energy consumption and refrigerant emissions sufficient enough to effectively offset the increase in cooling demand in the developing world.
At the launch of the report, Vardhan said, "Although India has one of the lowest penetration of air conditioning in the world today, this is set to change quickly as rising per capita income, rapid urbanisation and largely tropical climate will drastically drive up the demand for cooling."
"While this soaring demand for space cooling is a critical developmental and social imperative, it also represents one of the largest end-use risks to the climate," he said.
To offset the five-fold increase in energy demand for room air conditioners in the emerging economies, the report envisions a '5X Solution' a technology solution that has one-fifth of the climate impact, grid supplied electricity and refrigerant Global Warming Potential (GWP) taken together, as compared to today's standard AC units.
Demonstrating a hypothetical pathway to a '5X solution, the report suggests that the technology landscape of the present largely exists to support a leap to a five times lower climate impact solution and a market ecosystem is necessary to catalyze and scale this solution.
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