Workshop on Clean Cooling Solutions in The Asia and Pacific Region

BACKGROUND

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic underscored what has been known all along, that ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all (SDG 7) is intertwined with the other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in this case, good health and well-being (SDG 3) and climate action (SDG 13). Access to clean cooling, which is one of the modern energy services, reduces inequalities across human comfort and safety, and is essential to health services, and agricultural and food needs as well as to mitigate and combat climate change and its impacts.

OBJECTIVE

1. Assess the issues and challenges, and discuss the prospects in the provision and uptake of clean cooling solutions in the Asia and Pacific Region.
2. Present trends and innovative technologies in clean cooling solutions that are applicable to ADB developing member countries (DMCs).
3. Present and design business models that would increase the viability, uptake, and replication of clean cooling solutions among ADB DMCs.
4. Discuss the critical role of governments in creating an enabling environment for the adoption of clean cooking technologies, and share relevant policies and programs already being implemented in the region as case studies.

EVENT DESCRIPTION

Based on a 2020 report of Sustainable Energy for All, more than 1 billion people globally, of which 592.7 million live in Asia, are facing high risks due to lack of access to cooling for basic needs. The shortage of affordable and sustainable cooling solutions negatively impact access to health essentials, and the ability to find respite from dangerously high temperatures. Clean cooling solutions are important in storing and transporting perishable goods, such as food and medicines. With the advent of vaccines that will stamp out COVID-19 and other diseases, clean cooling will play a key role in ensuring universal access to health; cooling will be critical for the effective distribution of the vaccines to billions of people. For those living in hot climates, access to clean cooling has become a necessity to avoid serious risks to their health, and sustain their well-being and productivity.

Ensuring the availability of cooling that is affordable, sustainable, and accessible to all who need it is essential to alleviating poverty and achieving the global SDGs by 2030. The ADB has provided more than 100 million people with modern access to electricity through its Energy for All Initiative. Now, ADB, in partnership with SEAS through the Sustainable Energy Centre of Excellence, and SEforALL, is channeling its efforts toward bridging the energy access gaps in clean and sustainable cooling.

AGENDA