Mitigation potential of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from commercial building sector of China due to efficient and climate-friendly cooling

Abstract:

The global energy consumption of space cooling in the building sector is growing faster than other sectors and has more than tripled between 1990 and 2016. Space cooling is expected to account for an ever-increasing share of energy use with particularly strong growth in emerging economies. The electricity demand for space cooling in commercial building sector of China is growing significantly and is becoming increasingly critical with rapid economic development and mounting impacts of climate change. The growing demand for space cooling will increase global warming - from emissions of hydrofluorocarbons used in cooling equipment, and from carbon dioxide and black carbon emissions from the mostly fossil fuel-based energy currently powering space cooling.

This study uses the GAINS model framework to estimate current and future emissions of hydrofluorocarbons and their abatement potentials for space cooling in the commercial building sector of China and assess the co-benefits in the form of savings in electricity and associated reductions in greenhouse gas, air pollution and short-lived climate pollutant emissions. Climate and air pollution co-benefits of space cooling is assessed by taking account of a) regional and urban/rural heterogeneities and climatic zones among different provinces across China; and b) technical and economic energy efficiency improvements of the cooling technologies and the transition towards lower global warming potential refrigerants under the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.