COP ‘Cooling Pledge’ pledges to reduce emissions by 68 percent by 2050

They contribute to emissions because of the electricity required to power technology such as ACs and fans, and because air conditioning and refrigeration generally rely on hydrofluorocarbons.

These are short-lived but powerful pollutants that can have exponentially greater global warming effects than carbon dioxide.

The United Nations has said there are already an estimated 3.6 billion cooling devices in use globally, but that figure is expected to grow, with global energy demand for cooling tripling by 2050.

A UN report in 2020 warned, “Without policy intervention, direct and indirect emissions from air conditioning and refrigeration are projected to increase 90 percent above 2017 levels by 2050.”