ECOFRIDGES Green ‘On-Wage’ launched in Ghana to make environmentally friendly cooling products more affordable.

Environmentally friendly refrigerators and air conditioners will be more widely accessible and affordable in Ghana through a new Green On-wage financing scheme – ECOFRIDGES GO. 

The ECOWAS Refrigerators and Air Conditioners Initiative (ECOFRIDGES) is a joint project by the Governments of Ghana and Senegal, the United Nations Environment Programme’s United for Efficiency (UNEP U4E) initiative, and the Basel Agency for Sustainable Energy (BASE). In collaboration with regional and local partners, ECOFRIDGES aims to accelerate adoption of energy-efficient and climate-friendly domestic refrigerators and room air conditioners, saving consumers money on their electricity bills, relieving demand on the power sector, and mitigating impacts on the environment. A cornerstone of ECOFRIDGES activities in Ghana is a Green On-Wage (GO) financial mechanism that will help make these cooling products more affordable.

By 2023, through ECOFRIDGES GO, local financial institutions aim to unlock at least US$11 million in financing in Ghana to support the purchase of over 15,000 more sustainable cooling appliances and entice the replacement of old existing equipment. The project includes the proper collection and disposal of used appliances, product testing, policy considerations, capacity building, and promotion and awareness campaigns. It sets strict energy performance requirements and limits on the refrigerants of participating products to keep a lid on greenhouse gas emissions.

Kofi Agyarko, Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency Director of the Energy Commission, noted, “This programme positions Ghana as an African leader in advancing sustainable development, helping assure a better quality of life for our people while advancing the climate goals of the Paris Agreement and the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol.”

The project team is delighted to announce the launch of ECOFRIDGES GO following an in-depth market assessment and numerous consultations with stakeholders. Eligible salaried employees can access a 0% interest loan that is “on-wage” in that the repayment is deducted from their paycheck each month during the repayment period. The loan finances the purchase of a qualifying refrigerator or air-conditioner. Partner banks offering the loans include CalBank Plc, Ecobank Ghana Limited, Letshego Ghana Savings, and Loans Plc.

Participating vendors include Ederick Limited, Electroland Ghana Limited, Hisense, Nesstra Ghana Limited, and Services Merchandize Limited. The vendors will deliver the new appliance to the customer. They also facilitate the collection and recycling of used, operational products from participating customers who wish to exchange one in return for a voucher valid for future use at the store.

Brian Holuj, ECOFRIDGES Project Manager at U4E indicated that “ECOFRIDGES GO is a game changer for consumers, businesses, and the planet. It addresses the key hurdle to making sustainable cooling competitive with average products that may be inexpensive to buy but waste a lot of energy and cost much more to operate.”

According to Daniel Magallon, CEO of BASE, “Innovative financing instruments such as ECOFRIDGES GO have the potential to disrupt the market and facilitate households’ access to affordable, efficient refrigerators and AC systems and benefiting from the low energy consumption and low electricity bills. This initiative is an important coalition between the government, leading financial institutions and energy-efficient cooling technology providers, combining efforts for a more sustainable Ghana.”

Shilpa Patel, K-CEP’s Mission Investing Director, added: “We are very pleased to support ECOFRIDGES GO for climate-friendly cooling, and delighted it is coming to fruition in Ghana. Ghana’s example will inspire others and help the international community in our collective responsibilities to the Paris Agreement, the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, and the Sustainable Development Goals.”

Efficient products make cooling more accessible, and in turn, keep more indoor spaces comfortable and food fresh and nutritious, helping to cope with the consequences and restrictions of Covid-19.

ECOFRIDGES is made possible by funding from K-CEP and in-kind contributions from Ghana’s Energy Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, and project partners.

Read more about this project on the websites of the Energy Commission, U4E and  BASE. And follow ECOFRIDGES GO on Twitter.

How philanthropy can bend the cold chains emissions curve’ and unlock prosperity.

A new report, Net Zero Cold Chains for Food – A discussion document on the case for philanthropic action, released today, outlines the challenge of reducing emissions from rapidly growing food cold chains and how philanthropy can help ‘bend the curve’ whilst enhancing food security and poverty reduction through net zero food cold chains.

Delivering affordable, nutritious, and safe food that provides good financial returns for producers while minimising the environmental and climate change impacts is challenging. Cold chains play a vital role in helping the food system deliver against many of these challenges, but conventional operations based on refrigerants with high global warming potential (GWP) and equipment that inefficiently uses energy can have significant environmental impacts.

To avoid locking-in to high carbon, energy inefficient infrastructure, action is needed to develop net zero cold chains that reduce food waste and avoid emissions from high GWP refrigerants and inefficient equipment. This will require a system transition with action across many stakeholder groups to create low carbon infrastructure, access to reliable, clean energy, and appropriate operating procedures, as well as supportive policy, regulation, and commercial incentives.

The food cold chain alone is responsible for one third of hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) emissions, or 1% of total global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. GHG emissions are already significant in developed countries with food refrigeration contributing 2-4% of total GHG emissions in the UK. As new cold chain infrastructure comes online on low- and mid-income economies, these emissions are projected to rise significantly. For example, GHG emissions from cold chains in India are set to double by 2027 without active intervention.

Dan Hamza-Goodacre, Non-Executive Director, K-CEP commented:

“Net zero compatible cold chain solutions have the potential to ’bend the curve’ on GHG emissions in countries that already have significant cold chain infrastructure, but critically they will help to avoid significant increases in GHG emissions in countries where cold chain deployment is expected to grow. This presents an enormous opportunity for philanthropy to play a catalytic ‘systems integrator’ role in this complex sector, to reduce GHG emissions whilst delivering on critical areas including food security and poverty reduction.”

David Aitken, Director, Innovation at the Carbon Trust added: 

“Acting now to transition to net zero cold chains can unlock significant climate, food security and development benefits but will require a change from conventional solutions. Philanthropy can play a key role in catalysing this shift at scale and speed to net zero cold chains to ensure we protect the climate, deliver safe nutritious food to consumers and improve farmer livelihoods”.

The report is authored by the Carbon Trust with input from a range of leading experts and stakeholders and was commissioned by K-CEP. It summarises the case for philanthropic intervention and provides guidance on the practical actions that can be taken.

The full brief can be downloaded here.

Energy Transition: Stay cool and get to zero – Energy Efficiency Magazine

It’s hard to ignore the fact that the world is getting warmer. The last five-year period has been the warmest five years on record, so if we’re to achieve the Paris Agreement target of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C, then all countries, industries, and organizations must urgently work toward zero greenhouse gas emissions. To do this, we cannot ignore the cooling sector. 

Refrigeration and air conditioning (AC) are estimated to be responsible for around 7-10% of global CO2 emissions – three times more than aviation and shipping combined – yet are often overlooked. This blindspot is a double-edged sword: not only does mechanized cooling use super-polluting F-gases, which can be up to 12,000 times more harmful than CO2, it also consumes huge – and often inefficient – amounts of energy. In India, for example, we expect there to be an additional 112 million AC units by 2030, which could use 150 gigawatts of energy, the equivalent to 300 new power plants. 

Despite these problems, global access to cooling is vital for human health and prosperity, particularly in a warming world. Cooling helps to keep food fresh all along the ‘cold chains’ that supply our nutritional needs, keeps temperature-sensitive vaccines and medicines viable, and maintains human comfort in buildings. 

Getting to zero emissions for cooling will require a multipronged approach that transforms how cooling is generated and used. This approach consists of four key steps: reduce, shift, improve, and protect. 

Firstly, to reduce cooling emissions we need to reduce the need for mechanized cooling. By adopting a combination of passive cooling techniques and nature-based solutions, buildings and cities will become cooler, reducing the need for air conditioning and thus emissions. Sustainable design techniques like reflective materials and green spaces are proven to reduce internal and external temperatures, but require better policies, building codes, and financial incentives. Reducing cooling emissions will also require changes in behavior, including not ‘overcooling’ buildings and adjusting activity levels during the hottest parts of the day. 

Secondly, we need to shift away from polluting forms of cooling and toward technologies that emit fewer GHGs, both in terms of direct (refrigerants) and indirect (energy) emissions. In regard to refrigerants, cutting the production and consumption of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in cooling has the potential to avoid up to 0.5°C of global warming by the end of the century. We also need to adopt better practices when it comes to equipment disposal; around 90% of refrigerant emissions occur when refrigerators and ACs are disposed of due to dumping or damage. 

To cut indirect emissions, we must focus on transitioning to low- or zero-carbon energy sources. If global cooling use increases to the expected 5.6 billion AC units by 2050, that alone will require the combined current electricity capacity of the US, EU, and Japan. While renewable energy is crucial to reducing GHG emissions while meeting this growth, it’s unfortunately not that simple. Not all renewable sources are compatible with the nuances of cooling, such as meeting night demand or sustaining the constant temperatures needed for refrigeration. 

For these reasons, innovation in energy storage, including thermal energy storage, will be critical. District cooling and evaporative cooling can also be greatly scaled up. 

Thirdly, we must urgently improve the efficiency of cooling appliances, which, if done correctly, could save nearly $3 trillion in energy costs by 2050. Improvements in cooling efficiency are expected to double the climate benefits of phasing out HFCs, leading to 1°C of warming avoided by the end of the century. Increased efficiency can be a rapid solution, but we must move beyond incremental improvement in technology and commit to making significant changes. 

The final piece of the puzzle is to ensure that we protect those who are most vulnerable to a lack of access to cooling. Cooling is not a luxury, and global access is vital for the realization of several UN Sustainable Development Goals. We cannot simply limit cooling’s climate impact by limiting global access. 

Developing a pathway to zero emissions for cooling is complicated but necessary. By adopting better building design and urban planning, moving away from polluting refrigerants and energy sources, and increasing the energy efficiency of cooling technology, we could drastically reduce the negative impacts of the cooling sector. No single component will get us to zero. 

As you read this, a consortium of the Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program (K-CEP), the Carbon Trust, the UN Cool Coalition, and Oxford University is developing a pathway to zero for the cooling sector as part of the COP26 Champions and Marrakesh Partnership’s ‘Climate Action Pathways’ campaign. More information will be released later this year. In the meantime, stay cool (sustainably!). 

This article was written by Dan Hamza-Goodacre (Non-Executive Director, K-CEP) and was originally published in Energy Efficiency Magazine.

NDC Support Facility | Update

As always, but particularly during such trying and uncertain times, we at K-CEP hope that you and your organization remain safe, healthy, and intact.

We released an update back in April regarding the extension of our NDC Support Facility for Efficient, Climate-Friendly Cooling as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent delay to COP26.

At the end of last month, it was announced that COP26 has been rescheduled to convene November 1-12, 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland. As such, we are happy to be able to share with you the details of the revised timeline and process for K-CEP’s NDC Support Facility:

Round One | 2020

As mentioned in our previous update, we are proceeding under the assumption that countries are still required to submit their enhanced Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) by year-end 2020. With this in mind, proposals for NDC Support Facility funding are due by 11:59pm EDT on September 4, 2020. Successful applicants will then be announced in mid-November 2020, with funding being contingent on the submission of an enhanced NDC (or another official public document) that details new cooling ambitions.

Round Two | 2021

Due to the possibility that some countries may face ongoing disruption as Covid-19 continues to spread around the world, their NDC submission may be delayed until 2021. Because of this, a second round of applications for 2021 may be announced before the end of 2020 to encourage and support increased ambition.

Round-two funding is contingent on the quality of applications submitted and the amount of funds distributed in round one. We will continue to fundraise to increase the pool of funds available for the second round, but we reserve the right to allocate all funds during the first round in 2020 if the initial proposals are ambitious and of a high quality.

It is also worth highlighting that if we receive a large number of high-quality proposals in round one, such that the existing funding (up to US$ 12 million) is not enough, we will use this as an opportunity to raise more funds.

Updated Scoring Criteria

We have also taken this opportunity to update the Facility’s scoring criteria to better reflect the different types of proposals that we expect to receive, with slight changes being made to the ‘Impact’ criterion. A detailed overview of the revised scoring can be found in the Facility’s RFP.

We want to once again, thank those who have taken the time to prepare their proposals, and to encourage interested parties to please apply. Despite the delay to COP26, there has been no delay to the climate crisis. It is paramount for parties to accelerate their climate ambition and we want to highlight that enhanced commitment to efficient, climate-friendly cooling is a significant climate mitigation strategy.

If you have any questions regarding the NDC Support Facility, please email coolingfacility@ceaconsulting.com.

K-CEP launches new facility to help governments scale up climate-friendly cooling solutions ahead of COP26.

*** Please read the latest update on the NDC Support Facility | June 9, 2020 ***

The Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program (K-CEP) has launched a facility that will provide funding and guidance to support developing countries in scaling up efficient, climate-friendly cooling policies and initiatives. The NDC Support Facility for Efficient, Climate-Friendly Cooling (NDC Support Facility) will make up to US$12 million available to organizations to support governments that aim to integrate such cooling solutions into the next round of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which are expected to culminate at COP26 in Glasgow in November 2020.

The global need for efficient, climate-friendly cooling

Around 1 billion people are at risk from a lack of access to cooling, which impacts their health and livelihoods, as well as a number of other UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As incomes and living standards improve in many developing countries, and with the anticipated rise in global temperatures, the demand for cooling is set to soar. According to the International Energy Agency, it is expected that global energy demand for air conditioning will triple by 2050 for example. If we are slow to transition to the more efficient, climate-friendly cooling options available today, it is projected that the emissions from cooling could exceed the remaining carbon budget required to achieve the Paris target of limiting warming to 1.5°C within the next few decades.

“Current climate mitigation efforts put the world on track for a temperature rise of over 3°C,” said K-CEP Director Jessica Brown. “To keep humanity safe, we need to rapidly bend the curve and enhance our emissions reduction efforts. Cooling has emerged as one of the most important areas for climate mitigation and can serve as a winning strategy for countries to strengthen their NDCs in time for the Glasgow COP, helping minimize the society-altering impacts of climate change.”

The NDC Support Facility’s focus is to unlock the significant contribution that efficient, climate-friendly cooling solutions can make to climate and development goals, while simultaneously complementing the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, which aims to phase down super-polluting hydrofluorocarbon (HFCs).

“Undoubtedly, demand for cooling is skyrocketing all over the world. This is increasing pressure on energy demand while intensifying the risks for the planet and its people – especially our children,” said Sonia Medina, Executive Director of the Climate Change Program at the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), a funding partner of the NDC Support Facility. “Efficient, clean cooling for all underpins many Sustainable Development Goals and represents an opportunity to avoid substantial climate effects and emissions. This facility will not only help to scale up energy-efficient, climate-friendly cooling solutions but will help developing countries achieve their goals through strengthening their NDCs, helping them to rapidly reduce emissions.”

Applying for funding from the NDC Facility

The NDC Support Facility has up to US$12 million available for technical assistance to improve access to and the efficiency of cooling in developing countries. Funding will be awarded to organizations that are able to provide technical assistance and other forms of support to eligible Article 5 countries (including Kigali Amendment Group 2 countries such as India) that are making new cooling commitments in their strengthened NDCs for the 2020 UNFCCC climate negotiations (COP26).

Of the total funding available, up to US$5 million has been earmarked for proposals that focus on providing support to small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and US$3.2 million will be dedicated to helping communities that are most at risk from a lack of access to cooling.

Both countries and technical assistance providers are welcome to submit proposals. Application forms can be downloaded from our NDC Support Facility page.

Proposals are due by 11:59 pm EDT on 26th June 2020. K-CEP is working with CEA Consulting, an environmental management consulting firm, to run the facility and will be evaluating proposals before notifying selected applicants during the fall of 2020.

K-CEP is hosting a webinar on the NDC Support Facility at 5:00 pm CET on Tuesday, 28th January. Interested parties are invited to attend the session and can sign-up here.

 

For more information about the NDC Support Facility or the grant application process, please visit the our NDC Support Facility page or email coolingfacility@ceaconsulting.com.

Global Million Cool Roofs Challenge Launched

Project will award US$2M to spur community cooling innovations in the face of a rapidly warming planet

Contact: Nicole Bender – (202) 557-5031, Nicole.Bender@gmmb.com

 

San Francisco—The Million Cool Roofs Challenge was announced today with the aim of scaling up the deployment of solar-reflective “cool” roofs in developing countries suffering from heat stress. The global competition will provide US$2 million in grants to applicants with the most promising ideas and demonstrated success bringing cool roof innovations to scale. Challenge partners include the Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program (K-CEP) in collaboration with the Global Cool Cities Alliance (GCCA), Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL), and Nesta’s Challenge Prize Centre.

In the most vulnerable countries, over 1 billion people face significant risks from extreme heat every year and live without access to electricity for cooling. Another 2.3 billion can afford to purchase only the most inefficient models of air conditioning, which use super polluting HFC gases that are thousands of times more polluting than CO2. The increasing demand for cooling, if not better managed, is a colossal climate threat.

Through innovative coating materials, cool roofs can reduce indoor temperatures by 2-3° C in buildings, helping reduce demand for air conditioning for those that can afford it, while providing a passive cooling solution for the billions who cannot. When deployed across a whole community, the reflective surfaces of cool roofs provide relief indoors and can also have a net cooling effect, reducing local ambient air temperatures. A recent report from SEforALL, Chilling Prospects: Providing Sustainable Cooling For All, directly linked strategies to deploy more highly reflective “cool” roofs and walls to help support faster progress on the Paris Climate Accord, Sustainable Development Goals, and the Montreal Protocol.

Shown above: the roof at Naga College in the Philippines before (left) and after (right) becoming a cool roof, which reduces the absorption of external heat and the need for air conditioning in buildings.

“We are thrilled to launch this challenge, which will spur innovative approaches to combat extreme heat by supporting local businesses and communities throughout the developing world,” said Dan Hamza-Goodacre, Executive Director of K-CEP. “Ultimately, this competition is about improving quality of life through sustainable cooling solutions and economic opportunity.”

“Highly-reflective cool roofs are a unique, sustainable and cost-effective solution that helps close the gap in access to cooling for billions of people in the developing world,” said Kurt Shickman of Global Cool Cities. “This Challenge is an unprecedented global effort to speed lasting market transformations that are critical for community resiliency, particularly in regions of the world that are most vulnerable to the deadly impacts of a warming planet.”

The application period opens with today’s launch and closes on May 20, 2019. In August 2019, selected teams will be informed if they have been accepted. The ten best proposals will each will be given a $100,000 “Boost Award” to support the scale up of cool roofs solutions to compete in the final round.

“As the world grows dangerously warm, access to cooling is becoming the difference between life and death. This challenge will give local communities – often those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change – a practical, affordable and sustainable solution to keep their buildings cool,” said Rachel Kyte, CEO of SEforALL and Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General. “We encourage international organizations, NGOs, city-level governments, and private businesses to apply.”

The competition will conclude in December 2020, by which time teams must have demonstrated that they have met the judging criteria, of which a target to reach one million square meters of cool roof product deployed is an important factor. The Grand Prize of US $1M will go to the team that provides the most effective, sustainable and transferrable model for scaling up between August 2019 and December 2020. Potential applicants are invited to register interest on the Challenge website at coolroofschallenge.org.

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About the Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program
The Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program (K-CEP) is a philanthropic program to support the Kigali Amendment of the Montreal Protocol. 17 foundations and individuals have pledged $51 million to help increase the energy efficiency of cooling in developing countries. Through K-CEP, these funds will help nations transition to more energy efficient cooling, whilst they phase down the production and use of hydrofluorocarbons and replace them with newer, climate-safe coolants. K-CEP is an initiative of the ClimateWorks Foundation. For more information visit k-cep.org and follow us at @Kigali_Cooling.

About the Global Cool Cities Alliance
Global Cool Cities Alliance (GCCA) launched in 2010 to accelerate a world-wide transition to cooler, healthier cities. Its mission is to advance urban heat island mitigation policies and programs to promote more efficient and comfortable buildings, healthier and more resilient cities, and to cancel some of the warming effects of climate change through global cooling. Increasing the solar reflectance of urban surfaces such as roofs and roads is a cost-effective strategy to achieve these goals.

About Sustainable Energy for All 
Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) empowers leaders to broker partnerships and unlock finance to achieve universal access to sustainable energy, as a contribution to a cleaner, just and prosperous world for all. SEforALL exists to reduce the carbon intensity of energy while making it available to everyone on the planet. For more information, visit SEforALL.org and follow us at @SEforALLorg.

About Nesta
Nesta is a global innovation foundation. We back new ideas to tackle the big challenges of our time, making use of our knowledge, networks, funding and skills. We work in partnership with others, including governments, businesses and charities. We are a UK charity that works all over the world, supported by a financial endowment. Within Nesta, the Challenge Prize Centre uses prizes to stimulate innovative solutions to some of the biggest challenges we face. To find out more visit www.nesta.org.uk. Nesta is a registered charity in England and Wales 1144091 and Scotland SC042833.

Global Cooling Access Gap Takes Center Stage at UN High-Level Political Forum

NEW YORK CITY – On the same day that extreme heatwaves were hitting numerous parts of the world, Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) launched a new report at the UN on the emerging global challenge of providing sustainable cooling solutions for all in a warming world.

The event, held for the launch of Chilling Prospects: Providing Sustainable Cooling for All, took place during the UN High-Level Political Forum (HLPF), and bought together government ministers and a panel of global experts from the Cooling for All initiative to discuss the new research and possible solutions to increase access. The event was co-sponsored by the governments of Rwanda, the Marshall Islands and United Arab Emirates.

The Chilling Prospects report, produced in partnership with the Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program (K-CEP), is the first to explore how access to cooling determines people’s life chances, health outcomes and overall productivity. It also assesses the vast economic opportunities of the global cooling challenge and the imperative of providing sustainable cooling solutions that protect the climate.

“We’ve tried to look at cooling from a human perspective, what it means to people,” said Rachel Kyte, CEO and Special Representative to the United Nations Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All, in launching the report to a packed UN conference room. “If you don’t have access to electricity, if you don’t have access to cooling, a lot is in jeopardy, not only for life and well-being, but for economic opportunities.”

Valentine Rugwabiza, Permanent Representative of Rwanda to the UN, echoed the point, saying, “Cooling cannot be considered to be a luxury. It is an essential path for productivity, efficiency and also for safety.” Pointing to recent record high temperatures this month in Tunisia, she also stressed the importance of sustainable cooling strategies that do not worsen climate impacts.

Chilling Prospects shows that over 1.1 billion people globally face immediate risks from lack of access to cooling, including:

  • 470 million people in poor rural areas without access to safe food and medicines due to a lack of electricity and refrigeration;
  • 630 million people in hotter, poor urban slums with little or no access to cooling to protect them due to unavailable, intermittent or too expensive electricity.

Industry opportunity

The report also identifies another significant population that represent a different kind of cooling risk – specifically, 2.3 billion people in the growing middle class in developing countries who are on the brink of buying the most affordable and less efficient cooling devices, which could spike global energy demand with profound climate impacts.

Yet the Chilling Prospects research clearly shows another important message: the cooling challenge offers businesses and entrepreneurs an enormous opportunity of major new consumer markets which want super-efficient, affordable technologies to meet their cooling needs. This includes deploying the most efficient current technologies, as well as developing new, innovative efficient solutions, for those most in need of cooling – or as some called it, the “gold chain” at the bottom of the pyramid.

“Industry has proven we can meet the technological challenges. We need to act today, and the good news is that we have proven available solutions to do so,” said John Galyen, President of Danfoss North America, an industry leader on cooling solutions.

 

Left to right: Christine Egan, Chief Executive Officer, CLASP, John Galyen, President of Danfoss North America, Rachel Kyte, CEO and Special Representative to the United Nations Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All, Valentine Rugwabiza, Permanent Representative of Rwanda to the United Nations

 

Country action

During the launch event, government leaders, businesses, entrepreneurs and NGOs shared stories of simple and not-so-simple cooling measures that are improving people’s lives across many of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Many of the cooling gains are happening in regions that face the biggest cooling access risks. Among the 52 most vulnerable countries evaluated in the report, India, Bangladesh and Nigeria had the largest rural populations facing health and food security risks due to a lack of refrigeration. India, China and Nigeria and Brazil had the biggest urban slum populations facing cooling risks.

Danfoss discussed how it is helping India’s banana growers to optimize cold chain strategies, enabling them to more than double their incomes and open trade in Europe for the first time. Ecozen Solutions, a 2018 Ashden Awards winner, has developed a solar-powered cold room that is helping India’s rural farmers to maximize the shelf life for vegetables and flowers, thus boosting sales revenues. “We think there’s huge potential,” said Ecozen Solutions Co-Founder Vivek Pandey, speaking at a Seven for 7 event in hosted by SEforALL and Ashden to celebrate SDG7 leadership during the HLPF.

Other stories came from East Africa and the Marshall Islands, who told of affordable cold storage solutions transforming lives for remote rural farmers and fishing enclaves. “Many times the extra income that is realized by reaching remote rural markets (with cooling) can be the difference between sending a child to school or not,” said Deborah Barker-Manase, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Marshall Islands to the UN.

Other cooling solutions are simple to implement such as applying reflective paint on top of urban buildings to mitigate extreme heat. “It’s an ancient technology that can be deployed immediately,” said Kurt Shickman, Executive Director of the Global Cool Cities Alliance. He noted that in India, urban buildings with cool roofs are 3 to 3.5 degrees cooler inside compared to buildings with no reflective materials. “That can be the difference between life and death on a really hot day.”

Scaling Solutions

But these examples are only initial steps in delivering affordable and efficient cooling for all.

The discussion focused on key steps for catalyzing faster, broader action, including public/private partnerships, strong industry engagement, more development finance and government leadership.

Kyte praised India and Rwanda for promoting national cooling strategies and she encouraged other countries to join them and reap the benefits from being able to provide sustainable cooling in their countries.

Three historic international agreements are providing important momentum – the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Climate Agreement and the Montreal Protocol’s Kigali Amendment, which aims to cut global warming refrigerants, known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), by 80 percent over the next 30 years. The Kigali Amendment is an especially important opportunity given the soaring global demand for energy-intensive cooling appliances such as air conditioners.

Rwanda’s ambassador said it would be helpful if more countries would ratify the Kigali Amendment, beyond the 40 that have done so to date. “Universal ratification would send an important message to industry that this is where they should be putting their R&D,” she said.

Partnerships supporting action

Business and philanthropic leaders expressed confidence we can meet the challenge of providing affordable and efficient cooling for all, and do so in a way that does not increase energy demand and climate change.

Charlotte Pera, President of the ClimateWorks Foundation, a key funder of the Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program (K-CEP), said: “It’s really inspiring to see the potential for efficient clean cooling that not only provides climate benefits, but also to help ensure ample food supplies, help raise incomes for farmers, help get vaccines and medicines to markets where people need them and help achieve greater productivity and comfort and reduce heat-related deaths in the world’s hot spots that are, of course, only getting hotter.”

Pera announced that K-CEP, a philanthropic collaboration focused on tackling cooling-related pollution, is committing $5 million to support recommendations highlighted in the report. The principal aim is to spur wider interest and action by governments, businesses and policymakers on cooling needs. K-CEP will focus support on medical supply chains, especially vaccines, cool roofs and food cold chains, as well as support to train policymakers. Through a partnership with SEforALL, it will also continue raising awareness about the importance of efficient, clean cooling and the need for action.

To find out more about the report here, and follow the conversation online using #CoolingforAll

Europe Braces for Massive F-Gas Cuts in 2018

In 2014, the European Parliament approved a 15-year phase-down of F-gases.  The first step was cutting economy wide production by 7% (on a CO2 equivalent basis).  Next year is more drastic:  in 2018, F-gas production is capped at 63% of the baseline level.  Moreover, since imported appliances are included, the effective cap is 48% for domestic producers.  The EU policy was based on careful technical analysis and was meant to inspire ambitious action under the Montreal Protocol.  Unfortunately, it has become an outlier per the US’s unwillingness to keep pace, and per the Kigali Amendments’ protracted 45-year schedule.  Industry is already pressing EU member states for relief.  Unless Europe and California (its next closest rival) hold the line, we could lose all the existing momentum toward leap-frog technologies.  So far, regulatory officials are holding firm.  But the recent five-fold increase in refrigerant prices, anticipated product shortages, and potential business failures (particularly for SMEs) will test their mettle to the nth degree.

Cooling Efficiency: Benefits, progress & opportunities.

Cooling is essential to health, prosperity, and sustainability, underpinning many of the Sustainable Development Goals. Yet most cooling is energy intensive and highly polluting. Demand for cooling is booming, so there is an urgent need to cut cooling related pollution. Without action, cooling could account for almost 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Montreal Protocol
The 2016 Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol could avoid up to 0.5°C of warming by phasing out F-gases used in cooling. Promoting the energy efficiency of cooling technology during the switch to climate-friendly refrigerants could double these benefits according to the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. The Montreal Protocol Technology and Economic Assessment Panel (TEAP) Working Group Report on Energy Efficiency highlights how to deliver these sustainable development benefits from cooling.

Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program
The Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program (K-CEP) envisages a world in which environmentally friendly, energy efficient cooling is accessible to all. K-CEP is designed to support countries, companies and communities in relation to the Kigali Amendment. K-CEP is deploying $52 million of philanthropic funds to strengthen institutions, support policy, enable technology, leverage finance and help make cooling accessible for all.

New projects and opportunities
Countries, companies and K-CEP partners have already identified opportunities to progress cooling efficiency across the world. This important yet modest contribution towards realizing the huge benefits of cooling efficiency is shown conceptually in Figure 1. Additional opportunities for cooling financing and access to cooling for all are being developed. K-CEP will share insights and lessons learnt to maximize program benefits as widely as possible.

 

Figure 1: K-CEP contribution to realizing the cooling efficiency opportunity to 2050

All carbon savings numbers in Figure 1 relate to potential cumulative savings from now to 2050. They represent an initial, indicative view of savings potential and will be refined through further K-CEP funded work to improve consistency, attribution, and robustness.

 

Opportunities for improving the efficiency of refrigeration and air conditioning
The Montreal Protocol TEAP report identified three main opportunities for improving the efficiency of refrigeration and air conditioning (RAC) equipment: technology; financial; and policy, regulatory and information. We have mapped these opportunities with early projects K-CEP is supporting in response to requests from countries and companies.

 

Figure 2: Areas of opportunity

 

K-CEP at the cross-roads of 21st Century global challenges
K-CEP sits at the cross-roads of the Montreal Protocol, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the Sustainable Development Goals. K-CEP focuses its support to developing countries on the energy efficiency of cooling to increase and accelerate the climate and development benefits of the Kigali Amendment to phase down hydrofluorocarbons. K-CEP focuses primarily on air-conditioning and refrigeration, however other cooling solutions such as building design, shading, cool roofs, and super-efficient fans are considered in our work on access to cooling.

Figure 3: K-CEP seeks to achieve the following outcomes by 2020

 

Kigali Progress Tracker
In order to track progress against business-as-usual, and support the prioritization of cooling efficiency, the International Energy Agency is developing the Kigali Progress Tracker. The tracker will collect new data, and integrate it into a technology and policy database, that will generate insights into cooling emissions, markets and policies. The tracker will also enable K-CEP to monitor its impact. The tracker is part of the IEA’s new Global Exchange Hub for Energy Efficiency.

K-CEP partners
K-CEP works in partnership with UN agencies (UN Environment Programme, UNDP, UNIDO), the World Bank, the International Energy Agency, SE4All, and a growing coalition of NGOs, businesses, academia and civil society organizations around the world.

Unfinished Business on the Montreal Protocol

This June, NGOs gathered in Portugal to discuss opportunities for accelerating the hydrofluorocarbon phase-down set forth in the Kigali Amendments.  “Adopt and strengthen” has been the catch phrase of the F-gas campaign since its inception in 2008.  That remains as important as ever.

The Kigali Amendment was an unqualified diplomatic and substantive success.  It placed the entire world on a mandatory phase-down schedule for hydrofluorocarbons, preventing runaway growth in HFCs.

Still, it left key details undefined such as the future baseline against which all progress will be measured.  In addition, major implementation hurdles need to be cleared away and enforcement clauses must be shored up.  But most of all, the timetable needs to be accelerated by providing multiple incentives for leapfrogging to the most sustainable alternatives.

At the June meeting in Portugal,  NGOs proposed multiple approaches to advance work on the Montreal Protocol, a few of which are already being pursued by K-CEP funders. However, they agreed vigilance is crucial to avoid a watering down of the Kigali Amendment through inertia, indifference or malice. Brief descriptions of each intervention are provided in the text box below.  Fuller explanations are available from ClimateWorks Non-CO2 team and the leading NGOs.

NGOs also discussed troubles brewing in Europe, which is under a 15 year phase-down schedule.  The first major deadline is January 2018 (see figure below) and industry – which was hedging its bets – seems unprepared to comply. Major shortages and price spikes for replacement chemicals (which are already expensive) are expected. NGOs think this likely to promote black markets. They also expect production to be disrupted, perhaps with some marginal companies closing down. Southern Europe is likely to be the hardest hit. The net result could be pain all around: at the industrial, consumer and political level. European NGOs are rushing to get ahead of the crisis and to prevent the fall-out from spreading, but also see this as a moment to take a major leap forward for alternative refrigerants (hydrocarbons, ammonia, nitrogen, etc.) – a complex opportunity involving multiple players and institutions.

European F-Gas Phasedown Schedule

 

Vigilance comes at a cost. The multiyear NGO campaign leading up to the Kigali Amendment was well supported by philanthropy and governments, with the last minute surge of $80 million helping put the agreement over the top. Ongoing action to ensure the F-gas transition agreed in Kigali actually happens, needs continued NGO engagement and support, as well of course as robust replenishment of the MLF.

In terms of urgency, the European crisis is first and foremost, since it will hit in January 2018. The next most urgent tasks are to open the pathway to sustainable alternatives, close enforcement loopholes, and do everything possible to set a decent 2020-22 baseline. ClimateWorks and the Pisces Foundation are actively seeking partners for these Kigali+ efforts.

For more information: Clare Perry, EIA-UK; Sasha von Bismarck, EIA-US; Dorothee Saar, DUH, Germany; Axel Friedrich, Germany; C.B. Bushan, CSE, India; Baskar Deol, NRDC, India; He Ping, Peking University, China; Catherine Witherspoon, ClimateWorks Foundation; Jason Anderson, ClimateWorks Foundation. 

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