Press Release: Cooling for All announces new Global Panel co-chairs and members

New Global Panel on Access to Cooling to convene policy, academia, philanthropic and business leaders together to spur action and leadership in increasing access to integrated cooling solutions

Rwanda and Marshall Islands to co-chair Global Panel on Access to Cooling

NEW YORK, September 18, 2017: Sustainable Energy for All today announced two government co-chairs and members of the new Cooling for All initiative Global Panel that will work to identify the challenges and opportunities of providing access to affordable, sustainable cooling solutions for all.

Announced following the Panels inaugural meeting during the UN General Assembly, the Global Panel on Access to Cooling will work together to better understand the challenges and opportunities of providing access to cooling solutions that can reach everyone within a clean energy transition.

Cooling for All was launched earlier in the year as record-breaking temperatures of 129 degrees were recorded in Iran. Lack of cooling access risks health issues, work productivity and growing food loss - with current estimates showing that 30% of all food is either lost or wasted from lack of cold, refrigerated supply chains.

The panel, made up of leaders from business, philanthropic, policy and academia, will now work together to produce a comprehensive report that clearly addresses these challenges with evidence based recommendations. The report, due for release in 2018, will help create a pathway to ensure the poorest countries and their citizens, who are often disproportionality affected, can have sustainable access to cooling solutions.

The Global Panel will be led by two co-chairs; President Hilda Heine of the Marshall Islands and Dr. Vincent Biruta, Minister of Environment for the Republic of Rwanda.

Rachel Kyte, Chief Executive Officer of Sustainable Energy for All and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL), who will act as secretariat for the Global Panel, said: “As temperatures soar, cooling demands risk creating a significant increase in energy demand, that if not managed through super-efficient technologies or clean sources, will cause further climate change impacts and a rise in emissions. The work of the Global Panel will therefore be critical to develop the evidence we need to understand the challenges and opportunities of providing cooling access for all.”

New Global Panel members include; Achim Steiner, Administrator, United Nations Development Program; Rachel Kyte, CEO and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All; Erik Solheim, Executive Director, UN Environment; Dan Hamza Goodacre, Executive Director, Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program; Juergen Fischer, President, Danfoss Cooling; Kate Hampton, CEO, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation; Veerabhadran Ramanathan, Distinguished Professor of Climate Sciences, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego; Maria Neira, Director, Public Health and the Environment Department, World Health Organisation; Tina Birmpili, Executive Secretary to the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer and its Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer; Iain Campbell, Managing Director, Rocky Mountain Institute; Kurt Shickman, Executive Director, Global Cool Cities Alliance.

The work of the initiative and panel will create a direct intersect between three internationally agreed goals for the first time: the Paris Climate Agreement; the Sustainable Development Goals; and the Montreal Protocol’s Kigali Amendment* – with one of the key goals of the amendment to limit consumption and production of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), a potent greenhouse gas used widely in air conditioners and refrigerators.

The Cooling for All work is being funded by the Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program. For more information, please visit our website here or follow the conversation online using #CoolingForAll.

CONTACT

For further details on the announcement or any interview requests in NYC, please contact; Beth Woodthorpe-Evans, Sustainable Energy for All: beth@SEforALL.org | +1 202 390 1042