Climate investment opportunities in India's cooling sector
India’s cooling strategy can simultaneously mitigate the heat related risks on lives and livelihoods, lower carbon emissions, and position India as a global hub for green cooling manufacturing. Severe heat waves, responsible for thousands of deaths across India over the last few decades, are increasing with alarming frequency. Unlocking opportunities to create a sustainable cooling strategy can help India in its post-COVID recovery by boosting investments, creating jobs, reducing emissions, and securing the supply chains of medical care products, health infrastructure as well as food. Anticipating the complex cooling energy trends and challenges facing India, in 2019, the government of India launched the India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP) to help provide sustainable cooling and thermal comfort for all. This study focused on ICAP’s thematic cross-sectoral areas including space cooling in buildings, cold chain and refrigeration, transport air-conditioning and refrigerants. The authors identified specific and scalable interventions that can be achieved through partnerships with various actors to help implement the ICAP goals. The analysis identifies eight key clustered opportunities where concessional finance can play a significant role in advancing the goals of ICAP and sustainable cooling in India. The study presents actionable roadmaps for four cooling sectors and includes prioritized opportunities for concessional financing and private sector investments. The roadmaps also identify key policy actions that are required to jumpstart action in each of the associated sectors. The analysis also recognizes the key stakeholders required for planning and implementation.
