Deep Dive Workshop on Access to Cooling

BACKGROUND

Cooling is an invisible industry essential to our modern society – from the cold chains that safely deliver our food and vaccines, to the air conditioners that make our workplaces and homes comfortable, to cooling servers for our insatiable demand for social media or data.

The “Chilling Prospects” report prepared by Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) identified that 1.1 billion people, of which 750 million living in Asia, are facing risks due to lack of access to cooling for basic needs – lack of access to nutritious food, vaccines essential for health, as well as the ability to find respite from temperatures beyond limits for human survival.

OBJECTIVE

1. To provide a venue for discussing the various issues involved in accelerating access to cooling in the Asia and the Pacific Regions1. To provide a venue for discussing the various issues involved in accelerating access to cooling in the Asia and the Pacific Regions

2. To create awareness and appreciation by stakeholders in both government and private sector about the need and value of undertaking country-specific needs assessment and developing a national cooling plan.

EVENT DESCRIPTION

‘Chilling Prospects’ has identified nine priority countries taking into account the number of the population at risk. Of these nine countries at greatest risk from lack of access to cooling five are in Asia: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, and Pakistan. India rises to the top five in all three risk categories identified, followed by Bangladesh. and Pakistan that rise to the top five in two. In 2019, China and India passed National Cooling Plans with a focus on efficient energy consumptions for cooling, while in the same year Bangladesh started developing a National Cooling Plan.
Ensuring cooling that is affordable, sustainable, and accessible to all who need it is essential to alleviating poverty and achieving global sustainable development goals (SDGs), specifically SDG 7 on ensuring access to affordable, reliable and sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030. And at the same time providing assistance to countries through the proper implementation of their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in fulfillment of their commitments to the Paris Agreement..

AGENDA