The Challenge Behind Singapore’s Call for Sustainable Cooling

Cooling can protect people from dangerous heat. But if growing demand is met mainly with inefficient equipment, it can increase electricity use and emissions. That was the dilemma Singapore’s Minister for Sustainability and the Environment, Grace Fu, raised at the inaugural Global Cooling Pledge Assembly on 17 September 2026: as Asia warms nearly twice as fast as the global average, countries need to expand access to cooling without adding to the warming that drives demand for it. 246

Why the challenge matters in Singapore

Singapore’s climate projections make heat resilience a practical concern, not just a long-term aspiration. Its Third National Climate Change Study projects that daily maximum temperatures could rise by up to 5.3°C, with more high-heat-stress days and warm nights. 20 Fu described three linked priorities for responding: planning, policy and partnerships. 24

Planning means using climate science and local data to identify risks and shape adaptation. Singapore has also set aside S$40 million for an Adapting to Heat Impacts research initiative. Policy includes improving cooling energy efficiency so greater protection need not mean proportionately greater energy demand. Partnerships bring government, businesses and communities into the work of putting heat-resilience measures into practice. 2410

Cooling access does not mean air-conditioning alone

People with fewer ways to escape heat need solutions they can actually use. At the assembly, participants discussed lower-electricity cooling approaches, including for vulnerable groups such as farmers. 19 UNEP identifies shade, ventilation and insulation as passive measures that can reduce demand for mechanical cooling; stronger equipment-efficiency standards and a shift away from climate-warming refrigerants address emissions when equipment is needed. 3238

The Global Cooling Pledge, launched at COP28, joins those two goals: significantly wider access to sustainable cooling by 2030 and a collective target to cut cooling-related emissions by 68% by 2050. It also calls for better cooling-technology efficiency. These are commitments to guide action, not evidence that access has already expanded while emissions have fallen. 2931

What the assembly added

The newly announced Global Heat Resilience Roadmap is intended to help countries protect people and keep schools, hospitals, workplaces, food and water systems, and energy infrastructure functioning during extreme heat. The assembly also announced financing, partnerships and an industry platform to advance sustainable cooling. 119

Singapore received an inaugural Cool Leaders country award for its work on sustainable cooling and heat resilience. The recognition reflects its emphasis on research, policy coordination and community action; the harder test will be whether such measures protect more people as cooling demand grows without raising the sector’s emissions. 11031