This paper reviews the available worldwide cooling technologies for agricultural greenhouses and discusses the representative applications of each technology. Relevant information about the system characteristics, application and performance of the existing greenhouse cooling technologies such as ventilation (natural and forced), shading/reflection, evaporative cooling (fan-pad, mist/fog and roof cooling) and composite systems (earth-to-air heat exchanger system and aquifer coupled cavity flow heat exchanger system) is collected and presented in detail. As per the collected information, the pros and cons of each technology are also discussed. Finally, some important conclusions are drawn (based on the collected information) regarding the performance of each discussed system. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.