Singapore among cities backing push for sustainable cooling at COP30

Singapore was among 185 of the world’s cities that pledged on Nov 11, the second day of the COP30 UN climate talks held in Brazil, to do more to curb unsustainable cooling practices that are fuelling rising temperatures across the globe.

- Ang Qing Correspondent

Cooling can be unsustainable when it relies heavily on electricity generated from fossil fuels, which contribute to planet-warming emissions. Certain cooling devices also rely on refrigerants, some of which are powerful greenhouse gases.

A UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report released on Nov 11 showed that planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from the rapidly growing demand for cooling could more than triple by 2050, resulting in more extreme heat events.

At current rates, emissions from cooling could overwhelm power grids and lead to an estimated 7.2 billion tonnes of planet-warming carbon emissions by 2050, despite existing efforts to improve energy efficiency and phase away pollutive refrigerants, the report found.

Singapore's Minister for Sustainability and the Environment, Ms Grace Fu, said the Republic will share its technical expertise and experience in sustainable cooling and urban heat resilience.

Ms Fu was commenting on Singapore’s position on the launch of a new UN initiative at COP30, dubbed the Beat the Heat implementation drive, which aims to localise sustainable cooling measures.

The country has, for instance, rolled out an initiative to coat Housing Board blocks in all HDB estates with heat-reflective paint by 2030. A pilot project in Tampines has shown that the cool paint reduced ambient temperatures by up to 2 deg C.

COP30 kicked off on Nov 10 in the Amazonian city of Belem.