“Air conditioning is necessary. It's not a luxury in Mali”, says Mme Doumbia, refrigeration technician. For making sure that it cools down rooms and goods without heating up our climate, it is necessary to transition to natural refrigerants. The ROCA project shows that future-friendly technologies are available and functional. We have handed over several hundred room air conditioners with propane (R290) to our partners in Mali, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, and Senegal. The installations are ongoing.
Many room air conditioners in West and Central Africa still use the refrigerant R22. R22 is a HCFC (hydroclorofluorocarbon) that depletes the ozone layer and that has a global warming potential of more than 50001. The natural refrigerant R290 (propane), in contrast, has a global warming potential below 1. The introduction of R290 air conditioners is therefore an important step towards more future-friendly cooling.
For ensuring the safe installation and maintenance of the ACs, ROCA has trained more than 500 trainers and technicians from its four partner countries.
1 IPCC 6th Assessment Report, 20 years timeframe.