Cooling products (i.e. refrigerators and air conditioners) are used for preserving foods and medicines and creating comfortable indoor conditions, thereby being essential for the health, well-being, and competitiveness of the RMCs. Nonetheless, these technologies pose a critical risk to the environment because inefficient refrigeration and air conditioning systems can consume two to three times the amount of energy as efficient and options available today and these systems often contain refrigerant gasses that damage the ozone layer and the environment.

As the population and economy continue to grow at a fast pace in the RMCs, it is expected that the demand for cooling products such as refrigerators, freezers and air conditioners will significantly increase in the residential and public sectors as well as in the other sectors of the economy. By 2040, space cooling will increase electricity demand in the residential sector by 40 TWh, with the number of air conditioners across the region expected to increase almost sixfold to about 45 million in Africa . Therefore, ensuring these products are energy-efficient and climate friendly will greatly contribute to achieving the environment, social and economic development goals in African countries.

Barriers to the wider adoption of energy-efficient and climate friendly refrigerators and air conditioners are, among many others: (i) lack of information; (ii) split incentives (e.g. between landlords and renters); (iii) lack of technical expertise; (iv) lack of energy-efficient equipment on the market; and (v) relatively higher upfront cost of appliances.

To address the challenge of promoting energy-efficient and climate friendly refrigerators and air conditioners, many countries have enacted voluntary or mandatory S&L policies to ensure that the most inefficient refrigerators and air conditioners are removed from the market by voluntary or legislative action. Some African countries such as Ghana, South Africa, Tunisia have S&L programs in place. Others have developed their S&L programs and have yet to put in place the appropriate infrastructure to enforce them.

A key rationale of developing and implementing these programs is to increase the market demand for these cooling technologies, reaching economies of scale, decreasing cost of production, and thus saving end users money and making higher standards acceptable for manufacturers and retailers.