Sri Lanka has called for wider use of traditional and modern passive cooling methods to reduce dependence on air conditioning and cut carbon emissions, the Daily Mirror reported on Saturday.
The proposal was put by the Sri Lankan delegation to the Global Cooling Pledge Assembly 2026, held from 15 to 18 September by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Cool Coalition.
The claim being made
Deputy Environment Minister Anton Jayakody, who attended the assembly, said passive cooling methods could hold indoor temperatures in homes and commercial buildings at around 23–25°C without heavy use of air conditioning.
That is a specific and testable claim, and it is the substance of Sri Lanka’s position: not that air conditioning should be restricted, but that the temperature band most buildings run their units to achieve can be reached by design instead.
Passive cooling covers building-level measures that need no energy input — orientation, shading, ventilation, thermal mass, roof and wall materials, and vegetation. Sri Lanka’s vernacular architecture, with deep verandahs, high ceilings and cross-ventilation, is built around the same principles, which is what the delegation’s reference to “traditional” methods points to.
The delegation stressed the need to introduce these methods through practical measures suited to local conditions rather than imported templates.
A National Cooling Policy is planned
Sri Lanka also told the assembly it plans to develop a National Cooling Policy to reduce carbon emissions and respond to rising global temperatures, and said promoting passive cooling would form an important part of its work on climate resilience.
The assembly itself focused on responses to extreme heat and on promoting environmentally friendly cooling systems.
Why it lands now
Cooling is one of the fastest-growing sources of electricity demand in warm countries, and it peaks precisely when the grid is most stressed. Anything that flattens that demand curve has a direct bearing on generation planning — the same planning that has driven Sri Lanka’s recent push into battery energy storage and solar.
A building that does not need to run a compressor to reach 25°C removes load rather than shifting it. That is the argument for treating passive cooling as energy policy and not only as environment policy — a connection the Daily Mirror’s account does not draw, and one the planned National Cooling Policy will have to resolve, since the two sit under different ministries.
Not reported
The report does not say who else was in the Sri Lankan delegation, where the assembly was held, or whether Sri Lanka has signed the Global Cooling Pledge itself.
It gives no timeline for the National Cooling Policy — no drafting stage, no target date, no lead agency — and does not say whether it would carry regulatory force, apply to new construction through the building code, or rest on incentives. It does not say what the 23–25°C figure is based on, whether it was modelled for Sri Lankan conditions or drawn from elsewhere, or what it would cost to retrofit existing buildings. No figure is given for what share of national electricity demand cooling currently accounts for.
