WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities's video: Chilling Effects: Cooling Solutions in Building Decarbonization

In a warming world, cooling is both a necessity and a threat. Nearly 12,000 people die annually due to heat-related complications and roughly 30% of people live in areas that are exposed to extended periods of life-threatening heat. These numbers will only increase as the effects of climate change continue. Cooling is also needed in our everyday lives to keep our food healthy, our medicines safe, and our economies productive. All of which makes access to cooling critical for an equitable future. At the same time, inefficient cooling is energy-intensive and polluting, leading to a cycle that only increases the need for more cooling and contributes to global temperature rise. Already accounting for 7% of carbon emissions and driving electricity demand as one of the top consumers, the cooling sector’s impact on emissions and power grids is set to at least double by 2050. Managing cooling in the building sector will play a key role in mitigating cooling impacts in the future. In this webinar, organized by WRI's Buildings Initiative as part of the Zero Carbon Building Accelerator project supported by GEF and UNEP, experts will share insights from super-efficient industrial and commercial space cooling. They will discuss designing cooling techniques for residential homes, nature-based solutions to keep our cities cooler overall, and tools for government planning for heat impacts. Speakers: Dimitris Karamitsos, Senior Energy Efficiency Business Developer Specialist, Basel Agency for Sustainable Energy Prima Madan, Senior Advocate, Cooling and Efficiency, India, Natural Resources Defense Council Ksenia Petrichenko, Energy Efficiency Policy Analyst, International Energy Agency Lily Riahi, Coordinator, Cool Coalition Andrea Voigt, Head of Global Public Affairs, Danfoss Climate Solutions Learn more at: https://www.wri.org/initiatives/zero-carbon-building-accelerator