Cop28 and the Global Cooling Pledge

In December of 2023, 63 nations and some 85,000 participants, including more than 150 Heads of State and Government, joined together in Dubai for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28).

What is COP?

COP refers to the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The annual meeting is significant, with the first universal agreement on tackling the climate crisis agreed in 2015, known as The Paris Agreement. This agreement outlines and mobilises the universal effort to limit global warming to 1.5°C, requiring parties to submit national plans to reduce emissions and review these commitments every 5 years – known as the “Global Stocktake”. The next round of climate action plans are due in 2025.

The Global Cooling Pledge

The Global Cooling Pledge is an initiative of the United Arab Emirates and is one of nine non-negotiated declarations, pledges, and charters that constitute key outcomes for the COP28 Presidential Action Agenda. This marks the first concerted global effort to significantly reduce emissions associated with cooling – including refrigeration and air conditioning.

On current growth trends, cooling equipment represents 20% of total electricity consumption today¹. The pledge aims to raise ambition and international cooperation through collective global targets to reduce cooling related emissions by 68% from today by 2050. This equates to nearly 3.8 billion tons of CO2, achieved through the reduction of usage of refrigerant gases and reduction in electrical consumption (energy efficiency).

Cooling and energy efficiency

Cooling demand is growing rapidly and, without any further action, is predicted to triple by 2050², doubling electricity consumption. To avoid this future, the Global Cooling Watch Report “Keeping it Chill: How to meet cooling demands while cutting emissions”³ lays out measures for sustainable cooling in three key areas:

• Passive and nature-based cooling (greening cities, natural shading, good insulation, cool roofs, ventilation)
• Higher energy efficiency standards, minimum energy performance standards and labelling
• Faster phase down of climate-warming refrigerants used in the cooling industry

To visit the official COP28 website, click here.

Higher efficiency standards and better labelling of all cooling equipment would triple the global average efficiency of cooling equipment in 2050 from today’s levels.¹