Pathways to Prevent the Environmental Dumping of Climate-Harming Room Air Conditioners in Latin America & the Caribbean
Environmental dumping is widespread in Latin America & the Caribbean. This report showcases solutions and examines the origins and impacts of the harmful practice.
Key Findings
- Environmental dumping of low-efficiency room air conditioners (ACs) is common in Latin America and the Caribbean, accounting for 44% of all new unit sales.
- Obsolete refrigerants are present in over a third of new room air conditioners in the region.
- Multinational and local companies alike are responsible for the environmental dumping of room ACs and the spread of obsolete refrigerants in Latin America and the Caribbean.
- There is a wide cooling access gap in the region, placing marginalized groups at higher risk of health problems and low productivity.
- Unaffordability is a key barrier to high levels of access and low-efficiency room ACs compound this challenge. However, the current lack of access presents an opportunity to ensure that the significant growth potential for room ACs is met with climate-friendly solutions.
Recommendations
- If the governments of all 11 countries studied adopted ambitious room AC efficiency policies, they could reduce emissions by up to 173MtCO2e by 2050—equivalent to avoiding more than 20 years’ worth of emissions from over three coal-fired power plants.
- Brazil has proven that increasingly stringent and periodically revised efficiency policies can eliminate low-efficiency room ACs from markets.
- Grenada offers a model to accelerate the transition away from obsolete refrigerants by addressing technical, regulatory, and financial barriers through a multifaceted approach.
- Developing solutions to environmental dumping and obsolete refrigerants is a shared responsibility requiring close collaboration between importing- and exporting-country governments, the private sector, civil society, and international partner
Millions of people across Latin America & the Caribbean are being left behind with inefficient, outdated cooling equipment that's too expensive to run. Manufacturers have the know-how to produce better appliances but lack the incentives to manufacture and export them to the Global South.Ana Maria Carreño
Senior Director of Climate, CLASP