INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Cold chain identified for
high-impact solutions in GHG emissions
The document Cooling Emissions and Policy Synthesis Report: Benefits of cooling efficiency and
the Kigali Amendment highlights the increased demand for cooling and identifies key areas of
improvement in climate-friendly cooling.
Daily Maverick
This joint publication by the United hydrofluorocarbons in the cooling sector
Nations Environment Programme and delivering cooling more efficiently
(UNEP) and the International Energy through more efficient equipment and
Agency (IEA), is based on the assessments more efficient buildings and storage
of development and climate benefits of facilities and the many actions available
efficient and climate friendly cooling, and to get cooling right including:
is drawn from a longer analysis of the • The Montreal Protocol’s Kigali
climate and development benefits of
Amendment to phase down HFC
efficient and climate-friendly cooling.
refrigerants.
The report highlights that efficient • Proven policies such as minimum
and climate-friendly cooling is a crucial
energy performance standards.
piece of the climate and sustainable • National cooling action plans.
development puzzle. Cooling is required • The integration of efficient cooling
to protect vulnerable populations from
into enhanced nationally determined
heatwaves, keep vaccines viable, food
contributions of the Paris Agreement.
fresh and workforces productive.
• Transformative initiatives like the
It is essential for equity and
Cool Coalition.
development, especially as climate
change raises global temperatures. The Moving on all of these offers the chance
current global pandemic has further
to slow global warming, improve the lives
emphasised just how important cooling is of hundreds of millions of people, and
to society, with many stuck indoors in hot realise huge financial savings. As nations
climates during lockdowns and global invest in COVID-19 recovery, they need to
cooling infrastructure that is essential to ensure that they use their money wisely to
storing and delivering an eventual vaccine. reduce climate change, protect nature
There is, however, a catch. There
and reduce risks of further pandemics.
are an estimated 3.6 billion cooling
Backing sustainable cooling can help
appliances in use globally today, and to achieve all of these goals. The report
that number is growing by up to 10
helps to raise awareness about one of the
devices every second. This growth is set most critical and often neglected climate
to increase the sector’s greenhouse gas and development issues of our time. For
emissions dramatically, further warming policy makers, industry leaders and the
the planet. Without policy intervention, general public, it serves as an important
direct and indirect emissions from air guide to the role cooling can play in
conditioning and refrigeration are
delivering on our climate and sustainable
projected to rise 90% above 2017 levels development goals.
by the year 2050.
As the world faces the growing climate
The report lays out possible ways
emergency and tipping points are fast
to resolve this dilemma by delivering approaching, it is instructive to look to
efficient and climate friendly cooling for the Montreal Protocol on substances that
all – in particular by rapidly phasing down deplete the ozone layer for guidance
Food waste contributes significantly to GHG emissions.
and inspiration. The Montreal Protocol
is widely acknowledged as the world’s
most successful environmental treaty. It
solved the first great threat to the global
atmosphere from chlorofluorocarbons
(CFCs) and other fluorinated gases
that were destroying the protective
stratospheric ozone shield.
At the same time, the Protocol has
done more to reduce the climate threat
than any other agreement. This is because
fluorinated gases are powerful greenhouse
gases, as well as ozone depleting
substances. The Montreal Protocol and
preceding efforts to eliminate CFCs
have avoided an amount of warming
that otherwise would have equalled the
contribution from carbon dioxide.
It is astounding that a single treaty
has done this double duty so brilliantly.
There are many lessons to be learned,
including that the Montreal Protocol has
always been a ‘start and strengthen’
treaty: it started with mandatory control
measures to cut fluorinated gases on a
precise schedule, learned on-the-job by
striving to meet the controls, and gained
confidence from its initial success to do
still more for the environment.
The Montreal Protocol’s latest control
measure is the 2016 Kigali Amendment to
phase down hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs,
primarily used as refrigerants. While HFCs
do not affect the ozone layer, they are
potent greenhouse gases and phasing
them down has the potential to avoid
up to 0.5°C of warming by the end of the
century. The initial phasedown schedule
of the Kigali Amendment ensures about
90% of this will be captured.
Improving the efficiency of cooling
equipment has the potential to more
than double the climate benefits of the
Kigali Amendment, with the combined
potential to avoid the equivalent of up to
260 billion tons of carbon dioxide by 2050.
This will save nearly USD3-trillion in energy
generation and transmission costs, in
addition to reducing consumers’ monthly
electricity bills, while also protecting
public health and agricultural productivity
by reducing air pollution.
THE ROLE OF ECONOMIC
RECOVERY PACKAGES POST
COVID-19
The novel coronavirus (Covid-19)
pandemic has created an extraordinary
global health and economic crisis.
Beyond the immediate impact on health,
the current crisis has major implications
UNEP/IEA
The report, Cooling Emissions and Policy
Synthesis Report: Benefits of cooling
efficiency and the Kigali Amendment.
for global economies, energy use and
CO 2
emissions. The global economy could
decline by as much as 7.5% in 2020, whilst
energy demand could fall by 6% by the
end of 2020. Global energy-related CO 2
emissions could also fall by 8% in 2020.
This global economic downturn will
also have an impact on investment
in energy systems, including efficient
climate-friendly cooling. For example,
it is expected that investment in
efficiency in buildings will fall by over 10%.
Unprecedented action and leadership
from governments, companies and world
decision makers will be required to put
the world on an economic recovery
path, to boost the economy to retain and
create new jobs, whilst at the same time
generating the conditions for achieving
sustainable and affordable cooling.
The use of sustainable economic
recovery packages has been proposed
by many countries including the European
Commission, and many international
organisations such as the International
Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The
IEA’s Sustainable Recovery plan suggests
that an additional USD1-trillion of spending
over the next three years, could increase
GDP by 3.5%, put global CO 2
emissions
on a declining path, and create several
million jobs.
Specifically related to the cold chain,
the K-CEP programme has identified as
one of the six high-impact opportunities
to be “Policy design to address resilient
and responsive cold chain logistics for
healthcare and food security. A growth
in cooling is needed for food and
COLD LINK AFRICA • September 2020 www.coldlinkafrica.co.za 9