2023-11-28 12:57:10
Ice cubes – PIXABAY
MADRID, 28 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
A new scientific report calls for global cooling and the cold chain to be considered critical infrastructure to as the planet continues to warm.
The study, The Hot Reality: Living in a +50°C World (The Reality of Heat: Living in a 50+ Degree Celsius World), is published as world leaders, businesses, scientists and environmental agencies gather in Dubai for the start of COP 28.
The project is led by the Center for Sustainable Cooling and the African Center of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and the Cold Chain (ACES) in Kigali, Rwanda.
The report highlights the need to formally designate cooling infrastructure systems as critical infrastructure, critical to a climate adaptation strategy for a rapidly warming world. It outlines the benefits this would bring and proposes important next steps that must now be taken towards this vital goal.
Toby Peters, professor of Cold Economics at the University of Birmingham and Heriot-Watt University, and one of the report’s co-authors, said it’s a statement: “Cooling provision is neither an optional extra nor a lifestyle luxury. It is a fundamental service for a well-functioning, well-adapted, resilient and healthy society and economy, allowing access to the elements basics of life, such as food and health, and provides safe environments to live, work, learn and play in. However, although cooling is vital to the productivity, prosperity and economic well-being of every nation, “It is generally not on lists of important national infrastructure.”
Professor Peters added: “In recent years we have seen record summer temperatures of 40°C and 50°C, measured in places where this would have previously been unimaginable. As the world continues to warm, our need to adapt to the increase of seasonal ambient temperatures, as well as more frequent, prolonged and intense heat waves, energy resources, equipment, assets, people, business and financial models and other components that make up infrastructure systems that provide the critical cooling service will be at the center of adaptation and resilience strategies“.
The challenge is that refrigeration already accounts for more than 7% of all GHG emissions. It is estimated that these emissions could double by 2030. Additionally, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) are the fastest growing source of GHG emissions in the world due to growing global demand for space cooling and refrigeration.
Dr Leyla Sayin, Deputy Director of the Center for Sustainable Cooling, said: “The central role of cooling to the economic functioning of society, as well as its impact on energy, requires it to be a distinct cross-sector within the set of ‘economic infrastructure’ considered by governments, particularly in the context of future climate change and the impact of rising temperatures. Adopting a comprehensive, holistic and high-level systems thinking approach is a prerequisite for achieving optimized results in the planning, construction, operation, maintenance, adaptation and decommissioning of such infrastructure in a sustainable manner.”
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