Energy-Efficient Cooling Equipment Using Low- or Zero-GWP Refrigerants

IGSD collaborates with multiple NGOs, country and multilateral organizations, and industry partners to foster continuous innovation of cooling equipment and refrigerants. Our goal is improving access to best technology air conditioners, refrigerators, and other equipment in climate-vulnerable developing countries. With policy, research, and legal expertise—and many years of experience in the Montreal Protocol—we are promoting energy-efficient cooling equipment that uses low- or zero-global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants. One key strategy is to help developing countries combat the environmental dumping in their home markets of inefficient and obsolete cooling equipment that is cheap upfront but costly in the long run.

Cooling equipment is essential for:

• Storage and transport of food and medicines
• Comfort and safety in public and private transportation
• Schools and other learning and office environments
• Hospitals and health care facilities
• Manufacturing facilities and worker safety
• Health and comfort in personal residences

But in many parts of the world that desperately need air conditioning and refrigeration for human health and basic survival, the marketplaces are flooded with cheap but energy-hungry air conditioners and other cooling equipment that use obsolete refrigerants—chemicals being phased out under the Montreal Protocol. These less-expensive products are attractive to citizens who need cooling during dangerously hot days and to companies that need to protect workers, customers, and perishable products. Hidden from the consumers and often the importers in developing countries are the much higher long-term costs of operating, maintaining, and then safely disposing of this equipment at end-of-life. An inefficient and obsolete air conditioner can cost twice as much to run, month after month, year after year.

All countries should have access to affordable, energy-efficient, ozone- and climate-safe air conditioners and refrigeration equipment. Manufacturers that design and build best technology cooling equipment at competitive prices will be rewarded through new and expanded markets for their products and recognition of their goodwill. Our work helps to:

• Slow global warming
• Protect the stratospheric ozone layer in alignment with the Montreal Protocol and its Kigali Amendment
• Enhance community resilience and prosperity
• Promote products offering affordable operating costs to consumers, and jobs and profits for American manufacturing, supply, and service chains.

Learn more about what we do below.