Pathways to Stop Dumping of Climate-Harming Room Air Conditioners in Latin America and the Caribbean - [CLG-24-004]

Rationale

Environmental dumping of inefficient new room air conditioners (RACs) is widespread in developing countries. Many of these appliances use ozone-depleting and high global-warming potential (GWP) refrigerants which are targeted for phasedown under the Montreal Protocol.

In Africa, 35% of RACs sold in 2018 had efficiency levels below the minimum requirements of most of the countries exporting to
the continent. In Southeast Asia, 74% of RAC sales in 2021 did not meet Chinese minimum energy performance standards (MEPS), which are the world’s most advanced.

The Latin America and the Caribbean region has the third-largest RAC market with over nine million units sold in 2023, however the region lacks policies to stop environmental dumping of cooling appliances.

Developing tailored solutions for environmental dumping requires filling knowledge gaps concerning the region’s RAC market, especially efficiency levels and refrigerants in use. 

Greater awareness on the use and extent of ozone- and climate-damaging refrigerants will motivate national governments and citizens to demand affordable access to best-available cooling equipment.  It will also encourage stakeholders in the cooling sector to design tools and training for proper installation and servicing of cooling equipment for enhanced lifecycle management.

Objectives 

Under the Montreal Protocol, parties have adopted a decision to share responsibility in addressing the longstanding issue of dumping inefficient cooling equipment containing obsolete refrigerants. The project will conduct a region-wide RAC market study and a review of trade practices, policy landscapes, and other factors to gather detailed evidence on environmental dumping and the underlying factors
that enable it in LAC.

The project seeks to spur action on the national level across the LAC region to increase availability of next-generation RAC technologies for consumers and to stop the dumping of inefficient and high-GWP technologies. It will support the adoption and strengthening of stop-dumping policies such as high-GWP refrigerant bans and more stringent performance requirements.

Furthermore, the project will support to regional efforts, including those of the CARICOM and the Central America Integration System (SICA), to inform regional policies that have been under development for several years, such as CARICOM’s comprehensive Efficiency Labelling Scheme.

Activities

To achieve these objectives the project will:

• Conduct research and gather evidence on RAC markets, trade flows, regulatory landscapes, and other factors that enable environmental dumping of cooling technologies. 
• Conduct data analysis and impact modelling to determine the economic and environmental impact of trade in inefficient and high-GWP RACs in LAC. 
• Develop a report summarising the evidence of environmental dumping informed by research, analysis, and impact modelling and prepare recommendations for key stakeholder groups. 
• Develop an awareness-raising and dissemination campaign for the report findings, recommendations on solutions, and training for each targeted country, at the regional level, and other global initiatives. 
• Support for national governments integrating stop-dumping tools and access to best cooling technology in Kigali Action Plans and applications for targeted Multilateral Fund (MLF) funding.

Project Reference: Pathways to Stop Dumping of Climate-Harming Room Air Conditioners in Latin America and the Caribbean [CLG-24-004]