Sustainable Cooling: A Multipurpose Tool to Deliver on Net-Zero, Adaptation, Food & Energy Security - OFFICIAL COP27 SIDE EVENT

COP27 Official Side Event – Delivering on mitigation ambition

Date: Wednesday 16 November  I Time: 13:15 – 14:45                                       

Location: Room 6 (300), Sharm el-Sheikh International Convention Centre, Egypt                 

Organized by: Ministry of Natural Resources, Environment of Viet Nam and Basel Agency for Sustainable Energy (BASE)

In Partnership with: UN Environment Programme, Cool Coalition

Event Description

The latest IPCC reports are clear: climate change is already upon us, impacting billions of people. Climate impacts are further aggravated by a global energy and food security crisis that are hitting the poorest the hardest. Across 54 high impact countries, 1.2 billion poor people are already at high risk because they lack access to cooling. In some countries up to 70 % of food produced is lost due to lack of cold chains. At 1.5°C of warming, 2.3 billion people could be vulnerable to severe and life-threatening heat waves.

Expanding access to cooling is key to enhancing people’s resilience to climate risks, but cooling-as-usual is not an option. Left unchecked, emissions from cooling are expected to double by 2030 and triple by 2100, driven by heat waves, population growth, urbanization, and a growing middle class.

By scaling up sustainable cooling solutions we can deliver on net-zero emissions, address the global energy crisis, enhance resilience to climate risks, while strengthening food systems. Acting on cooling is a unique opportunity for climate action. According to the High-level Champions’ pathway to net-zero cooling, meeting future cooling needs sustainably could cut 8 years’ worth of global emissions and reduce the costs of the renewable energy build out by $3.5tn by 2030.

Half-measures won’t halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, which is what we need to take ambitious action on cooling now to address the climate, energy and food crises. In this session, champion governments, industry leaders and global experts will issue a call to act on cooling and to take a comprehensive approach to catalyze action at scale.

Objectives

• Highlight the role of efficient, climate-friendly cooling in delivering on net-zero targets for countries and industry alike.
• Propose steps to globally deliver sustainable cooling for all across sectors, including in cities, space cooling and buildings, cold chain and cold storage.
• Discuss opportunities to accelerate action through technology transfers, innovation, capacity building, targeted finance and policy support.
• Call for increased recognition of sustainable cooling as a key mitigation and adaptation priority, and increased action.