The UK has committed to providing developing countries with £4-million to drive down harmful emissions from outdated air conditioning units, cooling refrigeration and cold supply chains.

In sub-Saharan Africa, smallholder farmers contribute 80% of food produced. About 37% of all food is lost between production and consumption, and almost 50% of fruits and vegetables are lost mainly owing to improper cold chain management.

“This funding will help developing countries play their part in tackling climate change and communities across the world with storing food and medicines more efficiently, as well as support farmers to increase their productivity,” said UK Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey.

Further, a lack of adequate cold storage and refrigerated transport vehicles to support medical supply chains in developing economies currently contributes to over 1.5-million vaccine-preventable deaths each year. Estimates suggest that 25% of vaccines reach their destination with degraded efficacy mainly owing to failures within the cold chains.

“Sustainable and equitable cooling and cold chain is now more than ever critical infrastructure in a warming world. Food saved is as important as food produced,” said University of Birmingham cold economy professor and Heriot-Watt University professor Toby Peters, who is leading the collaboration of UK Universities supporting this work in Africa and India.

“This programme, for the first time, delivers in an integrated approach that includes on-the-ground training and support for subsistence farmers and their communities, financeable business models and the network of skilled engineers needed to support equipment installation and maintenance. This work is underpinned by the evidence strategies required for the development of sustainable cold-chain and community cooling,” he noted.

The funding will be provided to the United Nations Environment Programme, the University of Birmingham, the government of Rwanda and fellow project partners as part of Defra’s £21-million Sustainable Cooling and Cold Chain Solutions programme.

Following the announcement, officials from Rwanda's Ministry of Environment reiterated the country's commitment to the development of the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold-chain (ACES) headquarters in Kigali, which will be launched in late 2023.

“ACES can simultaneously deliver against multiple global challenges including mitigating climate change and environmental impacts of meeting new cooling demand; reduce food loss converting it into increased farmers’ incomes and food security and affordability for consumers and design the next generation of vaccine cold chains that are efficient, resilient, responsive and sustainable,” said Peters.

Further, alongside the UK funding commitments, the government of Rwanda is overseeing the development of key campus infrastructure to support ACES.

The consortium of Rwanda and UK universities, including University of Birmingham, Heriot-Watt University, Cranfield University and London South Bank University, are working together in collaboration with international academic and teaching partners and cooling industries to develop the ACES' teaching and research programmes to provide a pipeline of skills and expertise and innovation in cooling technology solutions, systems and models.

“UK’s ACES funding is supporting the development of Specialised Outreach and Knowledge Establishments (SPOKEs) to disseminate knowledge and deployment of solutions throughout Africa, with the first being in Kenya, as well as technical assistance to replicate the model in India in Telangana and Haryana.”

Meanwhile, an additional £1.2-million funding from Defra has been allocated to the project partners to further support the development of roadmaps and digital tools to help developing countries design the equitable and resilient and cost-efficient approaches, quantify the full economic environmental and societal impact as well as understand the policy landscape required to implement new approaches, the UK government said in a statement.