India becomes world’s first country to develop document on Cooling Action Plan

On 2018 World Ozone Day (WOD), the Union Environment Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan released a draft India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP) and a booklet on ‘Montreal Protocol – India’s Success Story’. With this, India has become the world’s first country to develop such a document (ICAP), which addresses cooling requirement across sectors and lists out actions which can help reduce the cooling demand. This will help in reducing both direct and indirect emissions. The thrust of the ICAP is to look for synergies in actions for securing both environmental and socio-economic benefits. The overarching goal of ICAP is to provide sustainable cooling and thermal comfort for all while securing environmental and socio-economic benefits for the society. The Montreal Protocol is the only environmental treaty, which enjoys universal ratification of 197 UN numbers countries, to protect the stratospheric ozone layer by phasing out the production and consumption of ozone-depleting substances (ODS).