Hospitals in three countries will explore ways to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and save money on energy bills through Health Care Without Harm’s (HCWH) Climate-Smart Health Care - Cooling Energy Monitoring, Audits and Demonstration Project which started in January of 2019. This multi-year project funded by ClimateWorks Foundation and implemented by Health Care Without Harm Global, Health Care Without Harm South East Asia (Philippines) and REEI (China) focuses on energy audits and the adoption of energy efficient cooling systems and controls in hospitals in Argentina, the Philippines, and China.

The greenhouse gas emissions from hospital cooling make a significant contribution to climate change. Globally, hospital cooling annually contributes approximately 440 MT CO2e, and absent efforts to improve efficiency and/or decarbonize the power grid, hospital cooling’s climate impact could triple by 2040.¹

Many hospitals don’t have the information they need to fully understand the benefits of investing in cooling efficiency. This project aims to develop and implement a program focused on energy audits in hospitals in China, the Philippines and Argentina. The audits will enable hospitals to understand their energy consumption from cooling and the associated costs; and identify actions they can take to improve cooling efficiency, and identify air conditioners that us refrigerant gases with lower GHG emissions. By improving cooling efficiency, hospitals will reduce their GHG emissions, and save money, year after year by reducing their energy consumption.

Following the cooling energy audits, some of the hospitals participating in the project will receive financial support through grants or other financing options to implement demonstration projects that implement key findings of the cooling audits and demonstrate the value of increasing the efficiency of hospital cooling systems.

¹Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program, Hovland Consulting LLC, Health Care Without Harm and the United Nations Development Program (2018) Global CO2e From Hospital Cooling Kigali Knowledge Brief