A Cool World: What to expect and what I am excited about!
The Clean Cooling Network’s groundbreaking 2024 report, "The Hot Reality: Living in a +50°C World – Cooling as critical infrastructure to survive and thrive", transformed the way many now think about cold-chains. It elevated them from the status of being largely unseen, poorly understood, and unappreciated, to the level of a widely recognised critical infrastructure vital to food security, health, and economic well-being. The messages and recommendations in the report catalysed actions, campaigns and conferences in the UK that have been helping to build the momentum of a call for government to take the formal step of declaring cold-chains as critical national infrastructure (CNI). Doing so would address the current fragmented, departmentally siloed, and sub-optimal approach to cold-chain related policy making, as well as ensure this crucial infrastructure is subject to better government risk planning, prioritised physical and human resource allocation in times of crisis, and more efficient planning policies for its built environment.
The Cool World conference - taking the big next step
These UK-focused activities have been very welcome and it has certainly been satisfying to see the impact the report has had in inspiring others to action over the past year. But now, with the Network’s forthcoming "A Cool World: Sustainable Cold-Chain for the Global South" conference in Birmingham it is time to take the next big step, move the thinking on cold-chains as critical national infrastructure to a whole new level, and catalyse meaningful action to accelerate the deployment of this vital CNI in the nations of the Global South.
There will be plenty of radically new ideas to be shared, discussed and developed at the conference, new tools to be viewed, tested and considered, and exciting developments to learn about, engage with, and help take forward. The style of the event will be collaborative, inclusive, discussion-based, and strongly focused on tangible, deliverable, time bound solutions and actions. By enthusiastically embracing this culture and participating positively in the spirit of cooperation, collectively we will contribute to helping deliver a consensus-built roadmap for accelerating the adoption of fully integrated, affordable, sustainable, resilient and inclusive cold-chains in the developing countries of the world. And as we take that journey together over the two days of the event, opportunities will emerge to identify gap filling research agendas and proposal ideas, formulate efficient realisable policy interventions, discuss possible initiatives for trade and commercial activity, and network more broadly with like-minded delegates from near and far, including many from Africa and India.
A crucial event that couldn’t be more timely
Across the Global South, temperatures are rising, populations are growing, and the need for cold-chains is spiralling ever upwards. Taking urgent, efficient and effective action to accelerate the adoption of this critical infrastructure is crucial if we are to ensure the food security, health and economic well-being of billions of people in Africa, Asia, South America and the Pacific, yet the reality of today is that deployment action is piecemeal, uncoordinated, often misinformed or misguided, and slow to happen. We need clear goals, targets and credible pathways for the uptake of fully integrated, optimally designed, inclusive, locally appropriate, future proofed, resilient cold-chains, and we need them now. Not just for the people of the Global South, but given the dependence of developed nations on food sourced from right across the globe, their potential exposure to new viruses and diseases emerging in areas where health infrastructure is inadequate, and their desire to minimise informal, uncontrolled access to their territory by those in desperate need of security, a source of livelihood, and a meaningful future, it is also an urgent imperative for the stability of the Global North.
The timing, structure and content of the Cool World conference could not be more appropriate. With the understanding that cold-chains are critical national infrastructure taking hold in the UK, a clearer view emerging of what needs to be done on-the-ground, in-country, in the Global South, and a benchmark template for duplicating success taking rapid shape in Rwanda, convening this international event to share knowledge, underpin roadmap development and catalyse accelerated action, is absolutely timely. And looking through the 2-day programme, in putting together the structure and content of the event the curators have created a well thought through, stimulating, engaging, combination of plenary sessions and "role your sleeves up" workshop style gatherings, that cover every core aspect of an agenda that is vital to address if we are to realise the promise of what cold-chains can deliver in the Global South.
Not to be missed – at any cost
As you would expect at such a crucial, yet complex moment in human endeavour, the conference programme embraces a wide, multi-disciplined, multi-dimensional range of conversations and perspectives. With such a wicked problem to urgently tackle, and an absolutely essential need to consider so many equally valid views, it’s almost impossible to suggest highlights that shouldn’t be missed – in short, the whole agenda should not be missed if a successful outcome to our actions is the goal! But having said that, in my book whatever we do in cold-chain deployment, we need to ensure it is future proofed, equitable, resilient, and most importantly, prefaced by in-country human capacity building and relevant, locally appropriate, training and skills development.
The world is littered with well-meaning interventions of equipment and technologies from the Global North that are underutilised, or simply ignored and not used at all, because the time and care was not taken to understand what communities and individuals on the ground want; what their experiences are; and how they will engage and interact with it; and to design and deliver appropriate knowledge transfer and capacity building actions. And that capacity, along with the kit itself, must be future proofed and resilient against a myriad of future threats and shocks, not least of which is climate change. So, agenda highlights for me certainly include the workshop style discussion sessions on "Global South Capacity Building", "Technology Selection, Testing and Demonstration", and "Equitable and Resilient Cold-chains – Accelerator Strategies for the Global South".
Two more highlights for me are the workshop style discussion on "Value Addition" and the plenary session considering the "Global South from a UK Perspective". Why? Well, in addition to helping to solve immediate challenges in food security and health (through the dependable and robust distribution of temperature-sensitive medicines and vaccines), cold-chains unlock economic development opportunities for rural communities in the Global South. They achieve this through not only reducing perishable produce losses and improving market connectivity for farmers, growers and fishers, but by also by facilitating the adoption of food processing, packaging, and branding opportunities, turning their raw ingredients into market-ready, nutritious products for more people. In doing so, communities can capture an increased share of the food system’s value and their cold-chains becomes an engine of growth, driving higher incomes and investments in rural economies, creating new jobs across farming, logistics, and processing, and building more resilient livelihoods. All of which helps to provide gainful employment amongst the expanding youth demographic of the Global South and reduces the desire to move away from home in the search for a better life.
To make all this happen, however, we will need to answer the first question on the lips of government planners, NGOs and commercial strategists: what kit should we put where, and how do we optimally and efficiently integrate it? Doing so will require the help of sophisticated but accessible tools - tools that are vital to ensure we don’t waste any precious time and resources in the race to deployment - tools that CCN has been busy developing and is now ready to share. So, I am highlighting the "Holistic Evaluation Modelling" and "Virtual Modelling System Design" plenaries, along with the "Open Discussion on an Integrated Model, opportunities and gaps" workshop style session, as important for helping to ensure these tools are going to be fit-for-purpose, get the answer right first time, and hit the ground running.
But beyond all this focus on equipment, virtual tools, technology, and deployment, raising awareness of why cold-chains are important, communicating their critical role in a healthy, food secure, modern society, and inspiring the next generation of engineers, technicians, innovators, entrepreneurs, marketers, businesses and policy leaders to engage with them, is vital to ensure that change happens - and is sustained. Realising this requires perspectives from outside the industry and engaging in the language of the everyday. So, Nicola Twilley’s keynote conference opening talk is certainly not to be missed (with a perspective on cold-chains gained as the author of Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves and co-host of the award-winning Gastropod podcast, which looks at food through the lens of history and science, she is guaranteed to broaden our minds, stimulate our thinking, and wet our appetites for the day’s work), nor are the powerful, compelling storytelling pictures in the Photography Exhibition – after all, a picture is worth a thousand words.
Join us!
Successfully navigating a sustainable and resilient pathway to a future-proofed, prosperous and inclusive outcome in the Global South requires leading-edge, innovative thinking, extensive meaningful collaboration, deep commitment, and rapid on-the-ground action with impact. This is your opportunity to help make that happen. Take it, register here for what promises to be an exciting couple of days in Birmingham on the 28th and 29th October and be part of taking the big next step.