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Overview

India is set to transition away from hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) by 2028, in compliance with its commitments under the the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. It has become vital to create and encourage a marketplace for low global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants right now so that they will be widely available by the time India’s transition schedule begins. Early transition to low-GWP refrigerants will also bring associated benefits of climate mitigation and energy-efficiency improvements in some applications.

Public procurement can be an important tool in enabling this transition, as it would help bring down the cost of currently expensive technologies that use low-GWP refrigerants. This policy brief highlights the role of public procurement and its importance in promoting climate-friendly refrigerants in the public sector in India, particularly through the example of low-GWP refrigerant ACs.

Green Public Procurement (GPP) is a way to encourage the use of environment-friendly technologies such that there is growing awareness of, and familiarity with, the said technology. GPP encourages the sale of less known or more expensive environment-friendly options, and it also supports greater innovation by providing incentives, and signals, to industry at large. Life-cycle cost assessment is considered to be the most thorough method of assessment for GPP. However, it can be technically challenging to implement given the complexities of the multiple tiers of assessment. This brief makes recommendations for climate-friendly procurement policies that may be less technically cumbersome to implement in India.