Rising demand for cooling in developing countries like Kenya necessitates sustainable solutions. Transitioning to energy-efficient technologies and eco-friendly refrigerants can reduce emissions and enhance access to sustainable cooling.
A National Cooling Action Plan defines a country’s ambitions towards sustainable cooling and charts the best possible path for accommodating current and future cooling demand while minimizing possible impacts on the environment, especially climate impacts. The Kenya National Cooling Action Plan is designed to enhance access to sustainable cooling for all Kenyans. The target is a holistic approach across sectors, taking into account the individual appliance, the building shell, as well as cold chains and the cooling needs for the entire population.
This will be achieved by increasing access to and improving efficiency of cooling appliances available in Kenya, transitioning the cooling sector to refrigerants with low global warming potential in general and to natural refrigerants where feasible, and increasing access to agricultural cold chains. In addition, the revision of building codes is initiated to mainstream passive cooling and to avoid the lock-in of poorly insulated new buildings that exhibit a high cooling load. Passive cooling measures can provide critical cooling services to populations lacking cooling appliances or the economic means to operate them, while also reducing and avoiding the cooling energy demand. Kenya’s National Cooling Action Plan is a living document, that will be updated in regular intervals to include more measures as capacities for implementation increase. The current focus lies on the promotion of energy efficient refrigeration and air-conditioning appliances, as those are rather straight forward measures that can be implemented in the short and medium term.
To promote the well-being of all Kenyans, strategies need to be developed to provide access to cooling to all inhabitants of Kenya, especially in hot regions. This development goal requires a broader scope than the uptake of energy efficient appliances and includes suitable building design and city planning to reduce active cooling demand in the first place as well as the affordability of cooling, be it active or passive.
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