The Cooling as a Service Alliance was launched today in Rome at an official side event of SEforALL at the MOP31.

Today cooling represents 10 per cent of global electricity consumption and demand will triple by 2050. In many regions, cooling is not only a comfort but also a means of survival with air conditioning and refrigeration necessary for habitable living conditions, food security and life-saving healthcare. However, conventional cooling both consumes a lot of electricity and relies on refrigerant gases that harm the environment. Even though efficient cooling technologies are available, deployment has been limited by high upfront costs and an uncertain returns from energy efficiency.

Cooling as a Service is an initiative led by BASE along with the Clean Cooling Collaborative (formerly K-CEP) and with the endorsement of the Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance that aims to decrease energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from cooling use through a pay-per-use service model for more efficient cooling systems. CaaS is a promising financial instrument that works to overcome key market barriers to clean and efficient cooling, without upfront investment, with integrated financial tools to recapitalise technology providers. BASE is supporting the implementation of the model in the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, South Africa, India, and Mexico.

The CaaS Alliance aims to support the process of mainstreaming the CaaS business model into markets. The alliance creates a collaborative environment between stakeholders active in the market and facilitators to spread the word about the model, build capacity, and implement the model in different sectors and regions. The CaaS Alliance gathers technology providers, investors, building networks and international organisations.

If want more information or you believe that the CaaS model fits the work stream of your organisation and would like to join the CaaS Alliance, please contact caas@energy-base.org. For more information on CaaS, see the CaaS Initiative website, or the Global Lab’s project page.