ASEAN Issues Guidelines for Energy-Efficient Air Conditioners

With cooling demand expected to expand sharply over the coming decades, improving air conditioner efficiency could become increasingly important for electricity planning and energy management across ASEAN. The new procurement guidelines represent another regional step towards addressing that expected growth while encouraging more efficient cooling technologies.

Key Highlights

• ASEAN has introduced Green Public Procurement Guidelines for energy-efficient room air conditioners.

• Electricity demand from room air conditioners is projected to rise 115% by 2040.

• The guidelines provide technical criteria and verification methods for member states.

ASEAN promotes greener air conditioner procurement

ASEAN has introduced new Green Public Procurement Guidelines for Energy-Efficient Air Conditioners to encourage wider adoption of higher-efficiency room air conditioning systems across its member states. The initiative places public procurement at the centre of efforts to improve cooling efficiency and reduce electricity consumption.

The move follows a forecast of a significant increase in room air conditioning demand across the region, with the 9th ASEAN Energy Outlook projecting that electricity use from room air conditioners could grow from 134 TWh in 2025 to 288 TWh in 2040, an increase of some 115 per cent.

Public procurement is an important policy tool to help drive stronger demand for efficient air conditioners before broader implementation of more stringent minimum energy performance standards.

The approach could allow governments and public institutions to influence the market by prioritising products that meet higher efficiency requirements, and greater demand for such equipment could also encourage manufacturers and suppliers to expand the availability of energy-efficient cooling technologies.

Regional efficiency standards continue to evolve

ASEAN has already taken steps towards greater regional consistency in the testing and evaluation of room air conditioners. Earlier policy efforts established a minimum efficiency level of 3.08 Wh/Wh CSPF for single-split systems by 2020.

Nine ASEAN member states have adopted or exceeded that level, reflecting progress towards more consistent regional efficiency benchmarks, and a further target was established through a 2021 update, with an efficiency level equivalent to 6.09 Wh/Wh CSPF targeted for 2025.

Progress towards the higher benchmark has varied between countries, as of June 2026, Singapore had reached the 6.09 Wh/Wh CSPF level, while Malaysia had formally gazetted alignment with the same level by 2030.

New guidelines set procurement principles

The newly introduced guidelines provide a framework that ASEAN member states can use when developing or strengthening green procurement policies for air conditioners. The framework covers principles, technical criteria, evaluation approaches and verification methods.

Rather than imposing a single procurement model across the region, the guidelines allow individual ASEAN countries to adopt or adapt the recommendations according to their domestic standards, market conditions and legal requirements, and the flexibility is significant because energy efficiency regulations, appliance markets and procurement systems differ across ASEAN economies. A common reference framework can nevertheless help governments establish clearer expectations for suppliers and encourage greater availability of high-efficiency products.