Promoting carbon finance for green air conditioners with heat pump function

Context

In the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region there are around 5.4 million air conditioners in use and this number is set to triple by 2030. That is why it is vital to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make cooling technologies more energy efficient.

However, high costs and the limited availability of air conditioners with natural refrigerants make this a difficult undertaking. The project is therefore planning to develop a support programme for green air conditioning systems in line with Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.

Objective

The partner countries implement national support programmes for green air conditioning systems with heat pump function as part of their national framework for Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes (ITMO).

Approach

Together with the GFA Consulting Group, the project is establishing minimum energy performance standards (MEPS) and energy labels for air conditioning systems. To this end, countries receive assistance with introducing regional MEPS and labels and setting up market surveillance, including processes for monitoring, validation and enforcement (MVE). At the same time, the project is implementing a programme to replace conventional air conditioners with systems that use natural refrigerants and have high energy efficiency.

The project

• conducts training courses for air conditioning technicians
• develops and pilots a waste concept for old air conditioners and refrigerants
• builds a sustainable supply chain for green, room air conditioners with a heat pump function
• replaces thousands of conventional air conditioners with green air conditioners

A model carbon funding instrument is also being implemented that takes account of carbon funding as stipulated in Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. This involves the development of a cooling sector-related ITMO project as support for the partner countries. Efforts also focus on assisting some of the countries on an ad hoc basis with regard to their ITMO rules. The project is also creating financing mechanisms to maintain funding for green air conditioning systems beyond the end of the project.

Last update: April 2024