World News

Industry news and insights from Europe and around the World

UK News

Latest news and developments in the United Kingdom

Products

Keep up-to-date with the latest new products and technology

Features

General articles, applications and industry analysis

3.4 billion lack access to cooling

USA: A new report estimates that the number of people without access to sustainable cooling has risen to 3.4 billion, due in part to the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Chilling Prospects: Tracking Sustainable Cooling for All 2021, released today by SEforALL, analyses the urban poor, rural poor, lower-middle income, and middle income populations in 54 high-impact countries and has revealed that global cooling access risks are on the rise. In total, 3.4 billion people lack access to sustainable cooling, it claims, up from 3.2 billion in 2020.

The rise is said to be due, in part, to the first increase in global poverty seen in 20 years, impacting mostly South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, 2020 was one of the hottest years on record, with numerous heatwaves recorded causing wildfires that emitted record amounts of CO2.

This latest edition of the report – the fourth in the Chilling Prospects series – has found that 1.09 billion vulnerable people are at high risk because they face a range of cooling access challenges. Covid-19 has intensified the situation, with those forced into poverty due to the pandemic contributing to the 50 million additional urban and rural poor at high risk in 2021. Meanwhile, another 2.3 billion from the lower-middle income group are said to face a different risk – inefficient cooling and refrigeration options that increase harmful levels of greenhouse gases.

Lack of access to adequate cold chains for Covid-19 vaccines is highlighted as one of the most immediate concerns facing developing countries and indeed the world. The Economist Intelligence Unit has forecast that 85 poor countries will not have widespread access to Covid-19 vaccines before 2023, including all African economies except Gabon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco, and South Africa.  

The report can be viewed and downloaded here.

Latest News

18th March 2024

Joint venture adopts Epta brand

ITALY: All activities under the recently announced Epta and Viessmann Refrigeration joint venture are to operate under the Epta brand.
18th March 2024

Low carbon heat briefing

UK: The SIRACH network is hosting a half-day briefing at London’s iconic Shard to share the findings of the Lot-Net project. 
18th March 2024

UK heat pump uptake too slow

UK: The UK must achieve an eleven-fold increase in heat pump installations if it is to hit government targets of 600,000 heat pumps installed per year by 2028.
18th March 2024

Refrigeration’s star engineer Forbes Pearson dies

UK: Stephen Forbes Pearson, co-founder of Star Refrigeration and one of the world's greatest refrigeration engineers, has died at the age of 92.
17th March 2024

132 Güntner dry coolers for Red Sea project

SAUDI ARABIA: German manufacturer Güntner has supplied 132 dry coolers, each with 18 fans, to a 32,500TR district cooling project in Saudi Arabia.
17th March 2024

NZ professor brings fridge workshops to UK

UK: Don Cleland, a professor of process engineering at Massey University in New Zealand, is hosting a series of refrigeration workshops in London this summer.