An award-winning campaign to promote energy-efficient CFC-free refrigerators, which dramatically increased the number of "green" refrigerators sold from 1,000 units in 1999 to 40 million in 2005, has come to a successful end after a five-year campaign period in China.
The US$40 million project, entitled "Barrier Removal for the Widespread Commercialization of Energy-Efficient CFC-free Refrigerators in China" introduced innovative market incentives designed to encourage refrigerator manufacturers and retailers to promote environmentally friendly refrigerators and to encourage customers to purchase them.
The project established a cash-incentive program by rewarding those manufacturers and retailers who were the most successful at producing and selling "green" refrigerators. The national campaign drew wide participation from competing manufacturers and retailers. Kelon and Haier, two leading Chinese refrigerator manufacturers, and Huangshi Dongbei, a company that produces
components for refrigerators, will receive monetary prizes as a result of their commercial push to promote "green" refrigerators in China.
"The explosive increase in household appliances in China is leading to an explosive increase in carbon dioxide output. The success of this project demonstrates that it is possible to find creative solutions that are both environmentally friendly and attractive to Chinese consumers," said Kishan Khoday, team leader of Energy and Environment for the United Nations
Development Programme in China, at the closing ceremony.
China became the world's second largest refrigerator manufacturer in 1996, and ranks first in the world today. In 1996, in 70% of urban households, refrigerators alone accounted for approximately half of daily residential electricity consumption. Back then, the refrigerators manufactured for the domestic market in China were significantly less energy-efficient than those used in developed countries. The participation in the project of leading Chinese refrigerator manufacturers resulted in an impressive 29% increase in the weighted average efficiency of household refrigerators produced between 1999 and 2005. There was a corresponding drop in C02 emissions of about 11 million tonnes by 2005, and this is projected to reach 42 million tonnes by 2010.
