By UN Environment
Growing demand for air conditioning units and refrigerators is threatening to accelerate global warming, but new guidelines could help reduce emissions by setting clear performance standards for new appliances.
The new model guidelines for room air conditioners and refrigerators provide a tool for developing and emerging economies on laws and policies requiring new appliances to be energy-efficient and use refrigerants with a lower global warming potential.
If ambitious efforts in line with the guidelines are pursued throughout Africa alone, the annual impacts by 2030 would result in savings of 40 terawatt-hours of electricity—equivalent to the output of almost 20 large power plants and a cost of US$3.5 billion in electricity bills—and a reduction of 28 million tonnes of CO2 emissions. Read more>>
