Sustainable Cooling in Support of a Resilient and Climate-Proof Recovery

A lead-authored brief by UNEP / Cool Coalition (Feb. 2021) outlines shovel-ready strategies, best practices and case studies to inform policymakers on using economic stimulus to make clean cooling a climate and resilience priority.

---

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered the largest economic shock in the world since World War Two. The global economy is expected to shrink by 5.2 percent in 2020, while up to 150 million people could be pushed into extreme poverty by 2021. This would be the first increase in extreme poverty since 1998 while negating recent progress (World Bank, 2020). The global response to the pandemic has highlighted the importance of access to space cooling and refrigeration as essential services to support people’s wellbeing during lockdowns, as well as to facilitate local delivery and storage of a COVID-19 vaccine once available.

Governments are seeking to overcome the economic and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and to this end are marshalling unprecedented levels of fiscal stimulus. It is of the utmost importance to seize this unique opportunity to facilitate the economic transition towards more sustainable development models, or, in other words, to “Build Back Greener”. This includes, inter alia, using this temporary period of expansionary economic policies to accelerate long-term progress on (access to) efficient, more climate-friendly  cooling in order to support a move to a resilient, low-carbon and equitable world.

Cooling herein underpins the ability of societies to function effectively and also reduce wastage by keeping food, medicines and vaccines at the right temperature (also known as refrigeration), while enhancing people’s productivity and comfort at home, school and work environments in hot and humid climates and during periods of intense summer heat in more temperate climates (also known as space cooling). It also helps us stay connected online – particularly crucial during the current global pandemic – by cooling data centres.

Intermittent lockdowns to curb the spread of COVID-19 have forced people to stay at home for extended periods of time, with up to 54% of the world’s population subject to lockdown orders during the so called first wave of the pandemic (IEA, 2020). Nonetheless, of the 2.8 billion people living in the hottest parts of the world, only 8% have access to space cooling (IEA, 2018). If cooling appliances were to be provided to all who need it, the world would see an almost four-fold increase in such appliances to 14 billion units by 2050, from an estimated 3.6 billion in use today (University of Birmingham, 2018). Moreover, effective ventilation and reduced recirculation of indoor air are important factors in preventing the COVID-19 virus from spreading indoors (WHO, 2020), making cooling considerations and technologies key control strategies to prevent transmission (McKinsey, 2020).

As countries chart a way out of the COVID-19 pandemic, many have set their hopes on the vaccines that have now started to become available. As GAVI (the Vaccine Alliance) data show, if temperature-sensitive vaccines have to be quickly deployed around the globe, the lack of cooling quickly becomes a major impediment, with only 10% of the world’s medical facilities having access to modern cold chain equipment (GAVI, 2019), and at least 3 billion people lacking access to a cold chain to handle vaccines (Hinnant and Mednick, 2020). As a result, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that nearly 50% of freeze-dried and 25% of liquid vaccines are wasted each year, with disruption in the cold chain as one of the largest contributors to this wastage (WHO, 2005). This would mean that the current COVID-19 vaccines, particularly those that have to be stored at very cold temperatures, could be out or reach for a major part of the world population, limiting its overall effect on global immunity, and reinforcing existing structural inequality mechanisms.

Cooling is therefore one of the critical intervention areas both during and after the COVID-19 pandemic that can help serve short-term emergency needs, and support long-term economic recovery, while contributing to sustainable development and building greater resilience to future shocks.

Today, cooling, particularly in the form of air conditioning, already accounts for 20% of the world’s total electricity used in buildings, and energy demand for cooling is anticipated to triple by 2050 (IEA, 2018). Reducing the consumption and production of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) – which are frequently used as refrigerants in cooling appliances such as air conditioners – in accordance with the provisions of the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, can avoid up to 0.4°C of global warming by 2100. Improvements in energy efficiency in refrigeration and air-conditioner equipment during the transition to alternative refrigerants with low Global Warming Potential (GWP) can potentially double these climate benefits of the HFC phase-down of the Kigali Amendment to 0.8°C (WMO and UNEP, 2018).

Moreover, providing improved access to sustainable cooling can greatly improve the life of up to several billions of people. Today, 30% of the world population is exposed to climatic conditions which exceed a deadly heatwave threshold for at least 20 days a year, and this percentage is projected to increase to up to 74% by 2100 (Mora et al, 2017). Of the 1 billion people living in informal settlement worldwide, a significant part lives in the tropics and subtropics (UN, 2019) and often lack the financial means for effective space cooling or food refrigeration, making them more vulnerable to such extreme heat. Improved cold chains in Africa alone could help households and smallholder farmers save US$4 billion worth of food each year (IRENA, IEA, and REN21). In addition, 1.5 million people a year die from preventable diseases – COVID-19 not included – due to the ineffective distribution of vaccines (WHO, 2015).

By actively incorporating efficient, climate-friendly cooling across sectors in their stimulus packages, countries increase not only their ability to weather the storm COVID-19 has brought about, but also to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol.

This brief presents how for multiple critical economic sectors or systems (buildings, appliances, urban environments, cold chains, and R&D) national governments can actively reorient public policy and include cooling in their recovery packages to support ongoing efforts to halt the COVID-19 pandemic, spur economic recovery, create and protect jobs for vulnerable population groups, and help strengthen resilience, while accelerating the transition to efficient, climate-friendly cooling technologies and solutions.