How can we work together to make the RAC Sector more sustainable? What have we already achieved together? And what are activities that we can implement and support? Questions along these lines were discussed by the partners and stakeholders of the Green Cooling Initiative in Thailand in the 2nd Strategic Partner Cooperation Meeting. This Meeting took place on August 30th, 2023 in Bangkok.
Many important actors of the Thai RAC sector participated in the meeting: representatives from the department of Climate Change and Environment Department (CCE), Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), Department of Skill Development (DSD), King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok (KMUTNB), Office of the Vocational Education Commission (OVEC) and Air Conditioning producers spent the day with the GIZ team to work on these important questions together. A lot of fruitful exchanges took place, and the partners shared many important updates and inputs:
The meeting was opened with welcome remarks by Ms. Siriporn Parvikam, project leader of GCI III Thailand, and Ms. Krittaya Chunhaviriyakul from Department of Climate Change and Environment (CCE), a main political partner of GCI III in Thailand. After a brief round of introduction, the GIZ team provided some updates on previous and planned activities as well as some insights into global and local trends in the cooling sector.
The morning was then completed by updates and inputs from the representatives of DSD on their plans for supporting the R290 training infrastructure in Thailand. KMUTNB gave an update on their demonstration project with R290 ACs, which are already installed on their premises, and which are currently being monitored. Finally, the EGAT Cooling Innovation Fund provided insights into their current and planned activities.
In the afternoon, the meeting continued with insights from two manufacturers and their view on the cooling sector. This was complimented by an input regarding international developments in F Gas regulations and safety standards from Mr. Philipp Denzinger, global team leader of the global GCI III project.
Armed with all this knowledge the participants then formed two breakout groups in which they identified gaps and barriers to the national transition policy to green cooling (group 1) and discussed potential future activities and initiatives related to GCI III (group 2).
After the results were shared, the following activities were agreed on by the partners and stakeholders:
Work together on providing license and certification for technicians working on R290 installation and maintenance
Focus on awareness raising activities for the importance of the RAC sector and how to make it more sustainable
Keep on developing the national RAC training curriculum including content on natural refrigerants