ESMAP’s Efficient and Clean Cooling program addresses key sustainable development challenges of providing access to cooling while minimizing negative climate impacts, with the aim of accelerating the uptake of sustainable cooling solutions across sectors such as: buildings, healthcare, agriculture, and fisheries.
The initiative seeks to mainstream efficient, clean cooling in relevant World Bank operations and to help countries build capacity and develop the necessary enabling environment, financing mechanisms, and policies and regulations to deploy sustainable cooling at scale, focusing on (i) space cooling and green/cool surfaces (including passive cooling strategies in the built environment, cooling equipment and systems; building automation and controls, as well as solar and vegetative roofs and walls); (ii) refrigeration, cold chains and logistics, including refrigeration, storage and distribution activities; and (iii) the mitigation of urban heat island effects. ESMAP’s program activities take an integrated approach for promoting sustainable cooling.
The Efficient, Clean Cooling Initiative was established in 2019 thanks to an initial US$3 million grant to ESMAP from the Clean Cooling Collaborative (formerly the Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program K-CEP), a philanthropic initiative housed within the ClimateWorks Foundation and has since become a key program within the ESMAP 2021-24 Business Plan.