NEW DELHI: Ingersoll Rand, leader in creating comfortable, sustainable and efficient environments, joined leaders from around the world at the TERI Annual World Sustainable Development Summit (WSDS), February 15-17, in New Delhi.
Ingersoll Rand, as a co-associate partner of the Summit, led the thematic track Affordable and Efficient Cooling: Maximizing Climate Benefits with Refrigerant Change.
This thematic track focused on understanding and finalizing the modalities for addressing issues of climate change and how energy efficiency could play a pivotal role in slowing the aftereffects.
Randal Newton, vice president of enterprise engineering for Ingersoll Rand, joined experts from environment, energy and sustainability services on the panel, to share views on how to address the demand for cooling (air conditioning) through better designs for buildings, enhancing energy efficiency of air conditioning equipment and systems, and implementing next generation refrigerants that have lower global warming potential without compromising safety, efficiency or performance.
“As the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) move from pledge to practice, companies like Ingersoll Rand are making bold climate commitments to increase innovation and offer customers choices for how to reduce their greenhouse gas footprint,” said Randal Newton.
“We have been offering heating and air conditioning systems that are highly efficient and use next generation, low GWP refrigerants. There are numerous factors when selecting refrigerants including safety, efficiency, performance and cost as well as environmental impact – all of which need to be addressed as choices are made.”
Others speakers and lead discussants included Shri Gyanesh Bharti, Joint Secretary MoEFCC, Dr. Hussamuddin Admadzai, Senior Advisor, Swedish EPA, Shri Saurabh Kumar, Managaing Director, EESL and Dr. Ajay Mathur, TERI.
Dr Ajay Mathur, Director General, The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI) also shared, his thoughts, “The simultaneous adoption of high efficiency compressors and low-GWP refrigerants provides costs savings benefits to both users and manufacturers in the short term, and environmental benefits to the world in the mid and long term.” He added, “I don’t think it’s possible to get a better aligned set of incentives – we now need to get the transition underway”
The panel also shared global best practices that India can learn from and discussed the key challenges around operationalizing energy efficiency within the Montreal Protocol as well as concerns around the future refrigerants, capital and operating costs, R&D capacities and adequacy of skills. Additionally, the panel shared insights on various efficiency gaps existing in India and how best to solve them by marrying innovative product designs, smart refrigerants and efficient building designs. Furthermore, the panelists agreed on the importance of ensuring that industry players and governments work together to decrease the time lag associated with getting regulations and policies in place and the need for quicker turnaround time.
