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Thought Leader Q&A
Meeting the Demand for Cooling in a Warming World Professor Toby Peters from the University of Birmingham explains the crucial need for cooling systems that serve everyone while not pushing the climate to the brink
― By Michael Garry
It
is well known that, as the world warms because of climate change, the demand for cooling is expected to skyrocket, not just for air conditioning, but also in the cold chain and many other applications. What is not often understood is that, at the same time, there is insufficient cooling to serve humanity, even under current climate conditions.
consequences: poverty, malnutrition, spoiled medicines, and unsafe living and working environments.
In his groundbreaking new report, “A Cool World: Defining the Energy Conundrum of Cooling for All,” Professor Toby Peters of the University of Birmingham, U.K., addresses the dual challenge of meeting the cooling needs of all people while also developing solutions for the huge spike in energy required to meet those demands. It is a complex dilemma calling for many approaches, including the accelerated adoption of natural refrigerants.
As a first step towards answering this question, we need to better understand the size of the problem. In “A Cool World – Defining the Energy Conundrum of Cooling for All,” we set out to provide, for the first time, an initial indication of the scale of cooling for all in a warming world - a scenario that would see ubiquitous penetration of cooling from cold chains to AC units.
Professor Peters, an internationally recognized exper t in clean cold technology, breaks down the issue in the following interview. // Accelerate Magazine: What is the overall message of the ‘Cooling For All’ report? Toby Peters: For the next 30 years, it is predicted that nineteen cooling appliances will be installed ever y second; however, even with this massive growth of the cooling sector, much of the world will still be without access to cooling in a warming world, suffering the
Accelerate Magazine // July - August 2019
If we are to deliver on the societal, health and economic targets of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), cooling for all will be essential. But what would it mean for our renewable energy systems and overall climate change mitigation targets?
The conclusion is that we will not solve both the challenge of ensuring equitable access to cooling for all humans and mitigate its future energy and environmental impacts without step-change intervention. // Accelerate Magazine: What role do natural refrigerants and the HFC phase down under the Kigali Amendment play in achieving the goals of the report? Toby Peters: The Kigali amendment to the Montreal Protocol is crucial to reducing the HVAC&R sector’s environmental footprint. But meeting the Kigali targets