Danfoss man joins future cooling panel

USA: Danfoss Cooling president Jürgen Fischer is the sole air conditioning and refrigeration representative on a new UN-backed panel seeking to find sustainable cooling solutions for all.

Sustainable Energy for All today announced two government co-chairs and members of the new Cooling for All initiative Global Panel at the UN General Assembly in New York.

The Cooling for All initiative, launched earlier this year, will focus on how growing cooling demands can be met within a clean energy transition, while supporting faster progress to achieve the goals of the Kigali HFC phase down agreements.

Cooling for All was launched earlier in the year as record-breaking temperatures of 129º 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.

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.”

Danfoss Cooling president Jürgen Fischer, the only industrial company representative on the panel, said: “Cooling has a powerful influence on our life and health; it keeps our food fresh and safe to eat, helps make vaccines available throughout the world, and keeps our homes and offices comfortable. All people should have access to these essentials. But we need to take it a step further by providing cooling in a sustainable way that tackles global warming at the same time. Danfoss looks forward to contributing our deep knowledge in this field and helping speed up implementation of energy-efficient and clean solutions.

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

In addition to Rachel Kyte and Jürgen Fischer the Panel also includes: Achim Steiner, administrator, UN Development Programme; Erik Solheim, executive director, UN Environment; Dan Hamza Goodacre, executive director, Kigali Cooling Efficiency Programme; Kate Hampton, CEO, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation; Veerabhadran Ramanathan, Distinguished Professor of Climate Sciences, Scripps Institution of Oceanography; Maria Neira, director, public health and the environment department, World Health Organisation; Tina Birmbili, 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.

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