It goes without saying that in a country as vast, economically unequal, and socially & culturally diverse as India, determining a specific cooling solution that keeps pace with global warming is by no means an easy task. Yet, undeterred, our central government has taken the initiative to implement a well-planned India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP) across approximately 250 cities.
It is easily foreseeable that, just as in the rest of the world, global warming has already had – or is poised to have in the near future – a profound impact on health, the environment, and the overall economy in India. In such a situation, the question naturally arises: exactly what steps is the Government of India taking to tackle this situation?
It may be recalled that India is the first country in the world to develop a comprehensive cooling action plan that was launched in March 2019. The plan included: a long-term integrated vision to address the cooling requirement with a 20 years’ time horizon; reduction of cooling demand; reduction in refrigerant demand; enhancing energy efficiency; and better technology options.
At that time, it was envisaged that the integrated actions with respect to cooling across sectors would have a higher impact during the implementation of Kigali Amendment than actions taken in isolation, which would maximise economic and social co-benefits, besides environmental gains.
ICAP set an ambitious goal to be attained by 2037-38, which included: reduction of cooling demand by 20% to 25%; recognition of cooling as a thrust area of research; reduction of refrigerant demand by 25% to 30%; training and certification of 100,000 servicing technicians; and reduction of cooling energy requirements by 25% to 40%.
It goes without saying that in comparison with the other national plans, so far ICAP has witnessed a slower rate of implementation. Of course, the summers are becoming hotter every year. Therefore, now we need to be more careful to introduce cooling solutions that are affordable for most of our citizens.
Pravita Iyer
Publisher & Director
