Page 32 - Energize January 2022

NEWS

Cooling and cold chain centre to to sustainable cooling meets the needs
of African supply chains and operating
develop network of outreach centres environments.”

The funding will help ACES to build on its
osted by the University of Rwanda at its Kigali campus, the Africa Centre of Excellence current achievements by:
for Sustainable Cooling and Cold Chain (ACES) is set to scale-up its work and develop • Expanding its capacity across cold-chain
Ha pan-continental network of outreach centres – thanks to a further $3,3 million and refrigeration
(about R50-million) funding boost from the UK Government’s Department for Environment, • Delivering scalability across Africa
Food & Rural Affairs (Defra). through SPOKEs
Dr Jeanne d’ Arc Mujawamariya, Minister of Environment, Government of Rwanda, said, • Creating international scalability by
“The immense benefit of this financial boost for further development of ACES cannot be replication of the ACES model in other
stressed enough. But, more importantly, the confidence and firm footing for the Centre’s fast-developing markets, such as India
ability to deliver sustainable solutions to the challenge of inadequate cooling across Africa is • Influencing policy and markets through
immeasurable.” further engagement with policy makers
This will enhance ACES’ research and development capacity through a network of and industry.
Specialized Outreach and Knowledge Establishments (SPOKEs) that deploy technologies and
innovative business models in rural communities. Developing the first SPOKE supports
Rwanda is one of the least urbanised countries in Africa with 73% of the workforce the Kenyan government’s Vision 2030,
employed in agriculture. In sub-Saharan Africa, 54% of workers rely on the agricultural which prioritises Agriculture, Health,
sector. A further challenge is that agriculture in Rwanda is dominated by six million small and Manufacturing and Affordable Housing.
marginal farmers, each on average farming less than 0,6 ha of land. The SPOKE will address:
The project supports Rwanda’s National Agricultural Export Development Board’s (NAEB) • Agriculture: Contributes 26% of Kenya’s
five-year strategy to double agricultural exports by 2024-25 and significantly increase exports economy and 62% of employment.
of aqua-culture, beef and other temperature sensitive products. Some 30% of food is lost between farm
The first SPOKE will be built in Kenya, with another to follow in Rwanda – helping to kick- and market due to lack of robust cold-
start the spread of energy-efficient, sustainable refrigeration for food and vaccine supply chains. chains.
ACES is a collaboration between the Rwandan Government, the University of Birmingham • Health: Kenya’s vaccine supply
and UN Environment Programme’s United for Efficiency (UNEP U4E) which unites international cold-chain is fragmented. Covid-19
and localized energy, technology, finance, capacity building and policy expertise. distribution logistics put even more
It offers an opportunity for commercial partners to develop and demonstrate the pathways pressure on the system.
and skills to deliver affordable, lowest carbon emissions cooling and cold-chain systems while • Manufacturing: This is driven by
meeting Africa’s social and economic cooling needs. It will provide research, teaching and agriculture, which provides up to 60% of
industrial collaboration to put into action integrated sustainable cooling solutions. the inputs for agri-processing industries.
Project co-designer and research lead Toby Peters, Professor of Cold Economy at the Cold storage is a weak point in the agri-
University of Birmingham, said: “We can now expand ACES’ capacity across the cold-chain value chains.
and refrigeration, incorporating vaccine and health distribution alongside food logistics.
“Building on developed-world sustainable technology and localising this to developing The team also plans to replicate the
world environments with the skills and business models needed will help ensure the transition ACES model in India, where cold-chain
emissions could double by 2027 without
active intervention.
The Government of India has set a
target to ‘double farmers income’ by
2022. At the core of this policy is effective
and efficient market connectivity. India
has committed to deliver 40% of its total
electricity generation from non-fossil fuel
sources by 2030 as a Paris Agreement
NDC target, as well as lower the emissions
intensity of the nation’s GDP by 33 – 35%.
The Centre of Excellence will help achieve
such commitments.

Contact Tony Moran, University of
ACES buildings on the Kigali campus of the University of Rwanda (Photo: University of Rwanda) Birmingham, t.moran@bham.ac.uk

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