Sustainable cooling that doesn't warm the planet

This is the fourth edition of the ground-breaking Chilling Prospects series, which tracks immediate vulnerability due to a lack of access to cooling. The work identifies populations at risk for whom a lack of access to cooling threatens their immediate health and safety. It models risk based on a spectrum of cooling needs: human comfort and safety; agriculture, food and nutrition security; and health services and medicine. On this basis, it categorizes risk across four populations: the rural poor, the urban poor, the lower-middle income and the middle income.

The rapid advancement and innovation in heat pumping technologies holds the promise of providing cost-effective, energy-efficient heating and cooling services to meet the challenges of decarbonization in the building sector.

This report, published in 2018, highlights the threats associated with rising, unchecked growing global demand for space cooling. It provides key insights into current and future trends in cooling, and it proposes policy responses to achieve a more sustainable pathway.