NatRefs are choice of four-country Cool Up initiative
Cool Up, a six-year program that will run until January 2027, has chosen natural refrigerants as part of its effort to upgrade cooling systems in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey.
That was one of the messages shared by Elisabeth Munzert, a representative of the German Ministry for the Environment, during a COP12/MOP33 side event on October 27.
Cool Up is financed by the International Climate Initiative through the German Ministry for the Environment.
“This project has the potential to contribute greatly to the uptake of sustainable cooling technologies and practices,” said Munzert. “The German environment ministry is looking forward to the implementation of the Cool Up approach; natural refrigerants and ambitious energy efficiency standards will be the choice of the future.”
The program addresses refrigeration and air conditioning in both residential and commercial applications. It aims to reduce energy demand and contribute to the safe disposal of f-gases.
The four participating countries are experiencing rapid growth in cooling demand and structural challenges in the energy sector. As a result, they have the potential to considerably increase energy efficiency and the use of natural refrigerants in the cooling and refrigeration sector, said Munzert.
Supporting Kigali
The Cool Up program covers several needs and objectives, she explained. Politically, it supports the Kigali Amendment’s HFC-phase-down agenda and the Paris Agreement’s climate goals. Financially, the program promotes the development of models to boost sustainable cooling applications in partner countries. On the technical side, the program enables the use of natural refrigerants and energy-efficient systems that contribute to the mitigation of rising cooling demand.
To date, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey have ratified the Kigali Amendment, while Egypt has not.
“In this project we also support the steep uptake of and the acceleration of implementing the Montreal and the Kigali Amendment in the MENA [Middle East and North Africa] region,” said Andreas Hermelink, Director of Guidehouse, a sustainability consultancy that is a key partner of Cool Up, at an EU side event during the COP26 climate talks on November 4.
“We of course try to transfer what we know from [an] energy efficiency investment, and also upscaling [an] energy efficiency investment, but of course we are talking about developing countries where all these instruments, at least partially, are not so much developed,” added Hermelink.
Hermelink noted that studies show that HFCs add 0.35 to 0.5°C (0.6 to 0.9°F) to global warming, “so if we are fast in phasing down or phasing out the substances, this will be a massive impact on supporting the 1.5°C/2.7°F [climate change] target.”
The findings from the Cool Up program will be available for the whole MENA region.