Green Cooling Summit 2026
until
Wednesday, May 20th, 2026 - 13:15
This year’s Green Cooling Summit, jointly organised by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the German Environment Agency (UBA) on behalf of the Ministry for the Environment, deals with the question of how single-split air conditioning appliances with the natural refrigerant propane (R 290) can be leveraged on a global scale.
Every year roughly 90 million single-split air conditioners are sold worldwide. Sales figures have doubled over the last 20 years and demand keeps growing due to global warming and increasing income in the global south, in particular in India and China. In addition to the energy demand of these appliances, the refrigerants used, mainly the hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) R-32 and R 410A, have a negative impact on the climate – although there is a climate-friendly and energy-efficient alternative available with R 290,.
Why have R 290 appliances not experienced their breakthrough yet? This is the question the Green Cooling Summit wants to provide an answer for. Therefore, financing aspects are put in the spotlight as well as legal ones, the latter steming from the HFC phase-out and HFC phase-down according to the European F-gas Regulation and the Kigali amendement to the Montreal Protocol, respectively. Further issues such as Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS), building codes and safety in technician training as well as the handling of R 290 split appliances are covered in individual sessions. Manufacturers of R 290 technology are given the opportunity to present their climate-friendly products and are involved in roundtable discussions which deal with the lack of their broad market introduction and use.
The Summit will be held as a fully virtual event in English. Simultaneous interpreting will be provided for French on both days and Spanisch on day one. The Green Cooling Summit is aimed at manufacturers, authorities/ministries, end users and researchers.