Sustainable cooling experts came to Birmingham for a global summit organised by the Centre for Sustainable Cooling (CSC) – taking the next steps towards delivering sustainable and resilient cold-chains in a warming world.
At the summit, the University of Birmingham and the Indian State of Haryana signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop a Haryana Centre of Excellence on crop post-harvest management and sustainable cold chain.
The agreement builds on the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold-chain (ACES) developed with the Government of Rwanda and UN Environment Programme at the University of Rwanda.
The Haryana Centre of Excellence will conduct state-of-the-art applied research and provide capacity building and training, an innovation and business hub and technology testing/demonstration centre. It will connect experts, investors, agri-food business, farmer cooperatives, and energy or logistics providers to deliver sustainable cooling.
It also follows an MoU signed earlier this year with the Indian State of Telangana for a Telangana Centre of Excellence. The UK and UN Environment technical assistance programme is funded by DEFRA.
Opened by the Rwandan High Commissioner, His Excellency Johnston Busingye and Mr. Jai Prakash Dalal, Hon’ble Minister of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Govt of Haryana, the Summit was hosted at the University of Birmingham.
Government, industry, end-user and academic delegates came from across UK, Europe, Africa and the Indian sub-continent – taking part in discussions to consider solutions, research needs, partnership opportunities. Summit organisers will publish a report with recommendations that will be pursued in ACES and the Haryana Centre later this year.
Jai Parkash Dalal commented: “The UK-Haryana Centre for Post-harvest & Cold Chain will be a big leap towards developing and demonstrating post-harvest technologies that will enhance the shelf life of perishable produce. The Centre will not only cater needs of farmers but also researchers and entrepreneurs.”
Approximately 60% of food should be refrigerated at some point in the food supply chain – a number which will only increase as countries look to meet UN Sustainable Development Goals, feed a fast-growing population and adapt to a warming world and fast degrading environment.
Caroline Rowett, Deputy High Commissioner, British Deputy High Commission Chandigarh, commented: “This is an excellent opportunity for them to work together to develop and showcase technology to help improve the functionality and efficiency of the ‘farm to fork’ supply chain. Farmers will have the tools to improve the storage and transportation of their produce to ensure it reaches the consumer in perfect condition.”
Lack of effective refrigeration results in the loss of 526 million tons of food produced (12% of the global total) with developing countries refrigerating less than 20% of their production. These food losses result in an estimated 1 gigaton of CO2-eq emissions each year globally, in addition to wasting agricultural inputs such as land, fertilizers, water and energy. Equally, 25% of vaccines reach their destination with degraded efficacy mainly due to failures within the cold-chains; 20% of temperature-sensitive pharmaceutical products are damaged due to broken cold-chains.
Conventional cooling technologies are highly polluting due to climate impact of refrigerants (HFCs) and indirect emissions from energy use. They account for 7% of all global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and these emissions could double by 2030, and triple by 2100.
Toby Peters, CSC Director and Professor of Cold Economy at the University of Birmingham and Heriot-Watt University, commented: “We must now figure out how to provide the globally connected cold-chains for a well-functioning society in an efficient, affordable, equitable and sustainable manner. Temperature-controlled supply chains networks are complex, requiring coordination across multiple stakeholders countries and continents. We need to understand the interplay with renewable energy, climate friendly refrigerants.
“We must also understand the impact and opportunities of radical new innovations – refrigeration cycles, Drones, Blockchain and Internet-of-Things (IoT) – as well as the food innovations such as alternative proteins, vertical farming which will dramatically change how we produce, distribute and consume food.”
Brian Holuj, UN Enivornment’s Project Manager for the Centres, added, “With the ACES hub taking shape in Kigali and major progress at its first “spoke” in Kenya, we are delighted to expand our collaboration with CSC to include the development of this new Centre in Haryana. There is a tremendous opportunity for cross-fertilization among the best minds in Africa, India the UK and beyond as we tackle critical cold-chain needs.”
CSC is responsible for a series of multinational and multi-partner cold-chain research programmes across UK, EU and internationally to explore system approaches on how to meet cold-chain needs and facilitate uptake of innovative systemic solutions at scale and increase awareness among policy makers about the importance of a sustainable, equitable and resilient cold-chain system globally.
