A FRAMEWORK FOR TRACKING COOLING INVESTMENT

The report argues that current cooling finance datasets are fragmented and lack the granularity needed to evaluate investment patterns against global needs. To resolve this, it introduces a code-tagging system that categorizes transactions across four dimensions: cooling orientation, climate orientation, solution type, and purpose. The framework aims to move beyond simple equipment sales data to include passive cooling, policy, and service-based investments, ultimately informing targeted investment strategies to meet Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Agreement targets.

• Current cooling finance tracking is insufficient because datasets often focus exclusively on equipment sales and lack project-level information, which prevents the assembly of comprehensive transaction databases.
• Global demand for cooling is rising rapidly, with the stock of air conditioners expected to exceed 5 billion units by 2050, which could lead to spikes in energy use and greenhouse gas emissions without proper standards.
• The proposed Cooling Investment Tracking Framework uses a six-letter code to tag transactions based on four dimensions: Cooling Orientation (the extent to which cooling is the project's purpose), Climate Orientation (whether it is efficient, clean, or sustainable), Solution Type (technology, services, policy, or finance), and Purpose (the sector, such as health or agriculture).
• The framework defines 'Sustainable cooling' as solutions that are both 'Efficient' (complying with national MEPS or using no energy) and 'Clean' (using refrigerants with low or no Global Warming Potential and Ozone Depletion Potential).
• A preliminary search of the 2018 OECD Creditor Reporting System (CRS) database using specific keywords identified cooling-related project commitments totaling USD 343 million, though this likely undercounts total investment due to the lack of dedicated sectoral tags.
• Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) surveyed generally support a standardized tracking approach, noting that identifying cooling-specific portions of large, complex investments is currently a time-intensive manual task.

APA

Wetherbee, C., & Meattle, C. (2021). A FRAMEWORK FOR TRACKING COOLING INVESTMENT. Sustainable Energy for All. https://www.seforall.org/system/files/2021-02/EF-Cooling-Investment-SEforALL.pdf

Chicago

Wetherbee, Cooper, and Chavi Meattle. A FRAMEWORK FOR TRACKING COOLING INVESTMENT. Sustainable Energy for All, 2021. https://www.seforall.org/system/files/2021-02/EF-Cooling-Investment-SEforALL.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Wetherbee |first1=Cooper |last2=Meattle |first2=Chavi |title=A FRAMEWORK FOR TRACKING COOLING INVESTMENT |publisher=Sustainable Energy for All |date=February 2021 |url=https://www.seforall.org/system/files/2021-02/EF-Cooling-Investment-SEforALL.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{wetherbee2021framework, author = {Wetherbee, Cooper and Meattle, Chavi}, title = {{A FRAMEWORK FOR TRACKING COOLING INVESTMENT}}, institution = {Sustainable Energy for All}, year = {2021}, month = feb, url = {https://www.seforall.org/system/files/2021-02/EF-Cooling-Investment-SEforALL.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }