MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE
(SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY)
(a) and (c): The India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP), launched in March 2019, provides an integrated vision towards cooling across sectors encompassing inter-alia reduction of cooling demand, refrigerant transition, enhancing energy efficiency and better technology options by 2037-38 through forging synergies with on-going programmes/schemes of the Government. The steps taken to reduce cooling demand across sectors by 20 to 25 percent and reduce refrigerant demand by 25 to 30 percent by 2037-38 are as follows:
(i) Towards promoting passive cooling in buildings, Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) has brought out the Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) for all large commercial (non-residential) buildings and Eco-Niwas Samhita (ECBC-R) in all housing projects. In order to enforce efficient building envelope guidelines in the construction of commercial and residential buildings, 18 States/Union Territories have notified the ECBC.
(ii) Implementation of Star and Labelling programme, Minimum Energy Performance Standards including new energy performance standards for all room air conditioners to have default temperature setting of 24ºC are some of the initiatives taken by the BEE to reduce cooling load as well as refrigerant demand and promote energy efficiency.
(iii) To promote indigenous development of new generation low global warming potential refrigerants, the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India has funded a research project to the CSIR- Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad.
(iv) Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, in collaboration with Bureau of Indian Standards has undertaken a study on developing safety standards for adopting non Ozone Depleting Substance and low global warming potential refrigerants in the Refrigeration and Air-conditioning sector.
(v) New product category of green room air-conditioners has been launched on the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
(vi) The Ozone Cell of the MoEF&CC, in collaboration with the Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), has undertaken awareness and capacity building activities on promoting energy efficiency and reduction of refrigerant usage in the air-conditioning equipment. Training of 17000 RAC service technicians has been undertaken as part of implementation of Hydro chlorofluorocarbons phase out Management Plan under the Montreal Protocol to promote good service practices to control leakage, thereby reducing refrigerant consumption.
(b) Up-skilling and certification of 1 lakh Refrigeration and Air-conditioning (RAC) service technicians on good servicing practices and knowledge of alternative refrigerants to ozone-depleting substances is under implementation under the national skill qualification framework (NSQF) of the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE). As on 30 June 2021, 58,352 RAC service technicians have been enrolled, out of which 58,097 RAC service technicians have been trained and finally 43,450 RAC service technicians have been certified.
(d) The measures taken by the Government to improve cold chain infrastructure and doubling farmers income are as under:
(i) The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY) provides subsidy for the development of high-quality infrastructure such as Mega Food Park with world-class facilities and modern storage facilities, cold chain, testing laboratories etc.
(ii) The BEE has completed a study to analyse the energy efficiency potential for promoting energy efficiency in cold chain, with focus on pack-houses.
***********
Download PDF Files
