Green Cooling Summit 2025: Sustainable Cooling and Heating in Buildings | Recap Day 1

In his keynote, Daniel Colboure (Re-Phridge) emphasized the significant emissions from building indoor climate control, noting that cooling energy consumption is rising by 5% annually, with AC accounting for 7% of global electricity usage and 3% of CO2 emissions. He advocated for sustainable building practices, highlighting a hierarchy of climate control technologies, from passive methods to mechanical refrigeration, and called for the use of natural refrigerants, optimization of construction and behavior, and the integration of technology and legislative measures to drive sustainability in the climate control sector.

In the first session of the Green Cooling Summit 2025, David Behringer from Öko Recherche talked about the climate and environmental impact of natural and halogenated refrigerants in chillers and condensing units.

Öko-Recherche has carried out a study for the German Environment Agency which compared chillers and condensing units with natural refrigerants with those ones with halogenated refrigerants with GWPs below 750 by means of Total Equivalent Warming Impact (TEWI) analysis, i.e. comparing the total direct (refrigerant) and indirect (electricity consumption dependent) emissions of a refrigeration unit over its lifetime excluding production. The results show that the overall energy efficiency of HFC/HFO blends and natural refrigerants are comparable. Best performing units turned out to be large chillers using the HCFO R-1233zd and R-717 (Ammonia).   Furthermore, it looked at trifluoroacteic acid (TFA) building potentials and the amount of emitted TFA per unit and per kW. Of course, these correlated with TFA building potentials and refrigerant charge. Condensing units showed the the highest ratio of emitted TFA per kW refrigeration capacity.

The second session hosted three experts who discussed their experiences in the field of district and central cooling and heating solutions. Cristina Mariaca Orozco (UNIDO) started the session with an overview of the Colombian Energy district Strategy. She emphasized the importance of district cooling as an driver for energy efficiency and climate change mitigation in cities. Second, the national ozone officer of Ghana, Mr. Joseph Amankwa Baffoe (EPA) shared his experience on the 2024 commissioned Near Zero Energy Building (nZEB). Africa's first climate and environmentally friendly air-conditioning chiller has been installed at the nZEB in Accra, Ghana. The chiller uses the natural refrigerant R290 and is mainly powered by a photovoltaic system, setting a new standard for sustainable construction. Finally, Dr. Andreas Koch (DENA) closed the session by presenting examples of district transformation using sustainable heating solutions and technology options for decabornisation, while considering and updating district energy concepts. 

• 00:17 – 17:00: Input by Cristina Mariaca Orozco, UNIDO
• 17:10 – 32:00: Input Joseph Amankwa Baffoe, Director and National Ozone Officer, Environment Protection Agency Ghana (EPA)
• 32:28-50:00: Input by Dr. Andreas Koch, Team Leader Districts & Cities, German Energy Agency (DENA)
• 50:01-End: Q&A 

The first day of the Green Cooling Summit 2025 featured a session focused on advancing energy efficiency and the transition to low-GWP technologies in the cooling and heating sectors. Two key presentations highlighted both policy and financial approaches to enable sustainable cooling solutions, particularly in developing and emerging economies. 

Miquel Pitarch (United for Efficiency – U4E) introduced U4E’s Integrated Policy Approach, which promotes the adoption of energy-efficient and climate-friendly appliances and equipment. He emphasized the potential impact of implementing Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) and refrigerant policies across 156 developing countries—estimating annual energy savings of 915 TWh and a reduction of 817 million tonnes of CO₂-equivalent by 2040. Ana Luiza Dutra and Denis Medvedev (International Finance Corporation – IFC) presented findings from the Cooler Finance report, which explores how sustainable cooling presents a major market opportunity for developing economies. They noted that the active cooling market is expected to grow from USD 272 billion today to USD 600 billion by 2050. The report estimates that sustainable cooling measures could help avoid up to USD 8 trillion in cumulative costs by 2050 through reduced electricity consumption, avoided infrastructure investments, and lower equipment expenses. The speakers stressed the need for accessible financing, enabling policies, and innovative business models to close existing affordability gaps and scale up sustainable cooling solutions. 

• 00:00 – 13:20: Input by Dr. Miquel Pitarch Mocholi, U4E
• 13:30 – 24:05: Input by Dr. Ana Luiza Dutra and Dr. Denis Medvedev, IFC
• 24:10-End: Q&A