The cooling runs across many sectors under the government’s purview such as space cooling in residential and commercial buildings, transport air-conditioning- roadways and railways, storage and cold chains, etc. In India, space cooling is fast becoming a necessity as it enhances productivity and improves the quality of life of all our citizens. However, increased air-conditioning greatly contributes to increased electricity demand and a steep increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Consumer behavior and preferences such as selection of air-conditioners and its usage pattern, servicing frequency, level of awareness among technicians about new technologies etc. are some of the major challenges are being faced by Indian cooling sector. Behavior of different stakeholders groups and their perception towards issues and challenges in the sector becomes very critical to identify smart policies, communication strategies and assessing capacity building needs. The energy efficiency improvements and related market transformation requires informed consumers and awareness among all segments of society as well as tailored information for education and training of stakeholders. Public policies are often more effective when these are supported by a wide range of parties, from governments to the private sector and civil society. Activities can be complementary, thus reinforcing each other, and

achieving better results with optimal efforts. To bring about a desired change through behavioral change some elements that are required to be kept in mind includes time taken to devise action plans, seeking strategies through collaborations between various stakeholders, identifying effective previous work done in comparable fields, involving appropriate expertise and highlighting the importance of specific behavioral targets and timeframes.

To better understand the persisting key issues & challenges, we at TERI has been conducting a national level perception survey through wider stakeholder’s engagements such as policymakers at the central & state level, industry, consumers, servicing technicians and industrial training institutes. The study aims to identify the levers to synergies the action vis-a-vis policy, awareness and capacity building to facilitate the implementation of the India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP) and to push and pull the correct levers for the targeted stakeholder groups.

At the TERI’s flagship World Sustainable Development Summit (WSDS – 2020), we are organising an event to engage national and international experts to brainstorm around challenges associated with behavioural aspect of different stakeholders groups and key actions from public sector and corporates to address the issues to promote sustainable cooling. During the event, TERI would present the preliminary findings of the stakeholder perception study to better understand the initial perception of various stakeholders groups.

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