Sustainable cooling solutions a $1.6 trillion potential market for India: WB
Chennai: Sustainable cooling solutions, which include “green” refrigerants, super energy efficient ACs and fans, and thermal comfort in buildings, offer a $1.6 trillion potential market for India, finds the World Bank.
India will account for 25 per cent of global energy demand growth in the next two decades and is set to overtake the European Union as the world’s third-biggest energy consumer by 2030. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates, India’s electricity demand for running household air conditioners will expand nine-fold by 2050 and exceed total power consumption in Africa today. India was prescient in launching a Cooling Action Plan in 2019.
The World Bank finds that sustainable cooling offers a $1.6 trillion potential market for India and this includes investing in sustainable “green” refrigerants, super energy efficient ACs and fans, and thermal comfort in buildings. The WB said it will support differentiated strategies around decarbonization of electricity, energy storage, energy efficiency.
Under business-as-usual emission scenarios, megacities in India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan could be among the first places in the world to experience extreme heat that exceeds the survivability threshold of 35 degree C.
Further, India uses double or triple the amount of water to produce a single unit of major food crops compared to China, Brazil, and the United States. Agriculture is also a significant source of GHG emissions. Higher mechanization, the increased use of groundwater irrigation, and cold chain development could significantly increase energy demands, requiring improved energy efficiency and low-carbon energy utilization.
India’s estimated countrywide agricultural loss in 2030 will be more than $7 billion due to climate change, which overall will severely affect the income of 10 per cent of the population.
In both India and Pakistan, WB’s SAR Climate Roadmap aims to strengthen the water-agriculture nexus through technical assistance on agricultural subsidy reforms, water resource management policies, and water pricing reforms. A notable proposed activity is performance-based lending with a focus on resource efficiency in an upcoming irrigation project in India.
