This presentation intends to offer an overview about the key challenges facing the air-conditioning industry in high-ambient countries in meeting global and national environmental and energy commitments while examining new low-GWP alternatives. The introduction of debates about key definitions like high ambient and low-GWP will be also discussed as part of different perspectives and views. The presentation will also include the driving forces and key objectives of the UNEP-UNIDO PRAHA project and its relation to other testing and research work.