About the Programme
The building sector in India is experiencing unprecedented growth and is likely to add about 35 billion m² of new floor area by 2050. Providing thermal comfort, reliable electricity, nutritional food, and access to vaccines to all its citizens is a key challenge and also a pressing priority. This offers emerging opportunities for more future ready buildings and habitable communities – with ambitious building energy codes, net-zero energy and net-zero carbon buildings, low-energy cooling innovations, energy-efficient and smart appliances, and sustainable cold-chain infrastructure for horticulture and vaccines.
The team at AEEE strives to advance energy efficiency, equity, and visibility of energy in buildings by undertaking cutting-edge research and analysis, supporting policy implementation, market transformation, and creating tools and other knowledge products.
Strategic focus areas
Sustainable Cold-chain
Promote sustainable cold-chain development for reducing food loss, ensuring food security and farmers welfare
- Mapping low-carbon and affordable technologies with sector needs and gaps
- Evidence-based solutions through lighthouse projects
- Scaling-up deployment through innovative business models and financing
- Awareness and capacity-building of stakeholders on cold chain system
- Integrating decarbonisation and energy efficiency guidelines and standards in the policy and financing framework
Sustainable Cooling & Refrigeration
Facilitate thermal comfort, well-being, and food security for India, while creating a low carbon and resilient infrastructure
Space Cooling Technology
Strive towards India’s thermal comfort needs by promoting innovation, deployment and market adoption of advanced and energy efficient space cooling technologies.
- Inform and guide the policy discourse on cooling.
- Facilitate establishment of cooling excellence centres and knowledge hubs
- Scaling-up manufacturing and deployment through business models and financing
- Behavioural changes for responsible energy consumption
- Technical research on novel cooling technology solutions
Low Carbon Built Environment
Enable pathways toward India’s net zero commitment through climate resilient and efficient built environment in buildings and communities
- Passive and low carbon building design ensuring thermal comfort
- Embodied and operational carbon management solutions in the built environment
- Facilitate implementation of national and state building energy codes
- Building construction materials and technologies assessment
Flagship programmes
India Cooling Coalition
India Cooling Coalition (ICC) is a multi-stakeholder group engaged extensively in sustainable cooling research and application. The platform aims to strategically mitigate the developmental challenges in line with various national and international commitments like India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP), the Kigali Amendment, Paris Agreement, and Sustainable Development Goals.
SAHARA
Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE), in partnership with Symphony Ltd., initiated the first-of-its-kind pilot “SAHARA programme”, a programme for Supporting Affordable Heat Action for Resilient Academic Institutions in India. The programme aims to mainstream super-energy efficient, affordable and sustainable space cooling solutions in India’s academic Institutions to bring in systemic changes and ensure Thermal Comfort for a Billion Lives (TCBL).
Scaling-up Investment in Clean and Efficient Cold-chain in India
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in partnership with Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE) and Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), is implementing the project ‘Scaling-up Investment in Clean and Efficient Cold-chain in India’ funded by the Clean Cooling Collaborative. The focus of the cold-chain support programme is to work with the state government and key cold-chain stakeholders to accelerate sustainable, market-linked and integrated agricultural cold-chain development.
Must Read
Retrofit and Modernize: A way forward for revamping legacy cold storages in India
Agriculture, one of the most important sectors of the Indian economy, has seen phenomenal growth in the production of perishable commodities, including horticulture produce. Among the horticulture crops, Uttar Pradesh was India’s largest potato producing state, followed by West Bengal, where 13.16 million metric tonnes (MMT) of potatoes were produced in 2019-20. However, investment for cold chain development in India, particularly West Bengal, undermines the importance of a climate-friendly uninterrupted cold chain as an essential requirement for the potato value chain.
