As the UK faces record-breaking temperatures of around 40C at the start of the week, it is clear that clean and cost-effective cooling equipment is a vital part of climate adaptation.
However, cooling currently accounts for around 7% of global emissions and could double by 2040 unless solutions are decarbonised and made more efficient.
The Clean Cooling Collaborative unites corporates and organisations in a global effort to reduce emissions from cooling. The Collaborative has announced that the IKEA Foundation has joined and will provide $25m in grants over the next four years.
Funding will be used to create more efficient, climate-friendly cooling technologies through redesigns and innovation.
“Climate change is fuelling record-setting heat waves around the globe, which put the lives and livelihoods of over 1.2 billion people at risk due to a lack of access to cooling,” the IKEA Foundation’s programme manager for climate action Edgar van de Brug said.
“We’re proud to join the Clean Cooling Collaborative and support their ambitious plan to promote efficient, climate-friendly cooling solutions to reduce emissions and create a healthy planet for people worldwide.”
Last year, the IKEA Foundation outlined plans to spend an additional €1bn on initiatives supporting the low-carbon transition over a five-year period.
The funding will be used to support renewable energy programs, with a focus on communities that are currently highly dependent on fossil fuels. It will be allocated to generation, distribution and energy access.
Ikea Foundation had already committed €500m to climate mitigation and adaptation by 2025. This was an increase on the €368m spent between 2014 and 2020. However, the organisation said in a statement that “now more than ever, governments, other funders and businesses need to increase their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions”.
As for the Clean Colling Collaboration, the programme launched a new set of strategies that put the clean cooling community on a path to avoid 100 gigatons of CO2e emissions globally by 2050.
The programme is targeting regions and nations that are responsible for 75% of all cooling-related emissions – namely India, China, Southeast Asia, and the United States.
“We believe cooling should be a human right, and the sector must be on a more sustainable and accessible path as demand for air conditioning explodes worldwide,” the Collaborative’s director Noah Horowitz said.
“We welcome the IKEA Foundation to the Clean Cooling Collaborative. Their generous support will help supercharge our collective efforts to boost appliance efficiency and the use of climate-friendly refrigerants, expand global access to more sustainable cooling, and use these solutions to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions for decades to come.”