Cold Chains Move to Centre Stage in the Race for Food Security, Public Health and Climate Resilience
Cold chains have long hummed in the background of food markets and vaccine clinics, but as heatwaves intensify, they are stepping into the spotlight. On 30 July 2025, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Cool Coalition convened Cold Chains for a Hot Planet: Cooling for Resilient Food and Health Systems, a Cool Talks webinar held alongside the 2nd UN Food Systems Summit +4 Stocktaking Moment. The discussion traced how sustainable cold chains can slash food loss, protect public health and curb emissions, if governments, financiers and technologists scale them quickly.
Moderator Angshuman Siddhanta, Sustainable Cold Chain Expert at the UNEP Cool Coalition, opened the event referring to cold chains as “critical infrastructure for development, climate and equity.” He pointed to the Coalition’s recent work in India as a powerful blueprint for climate change through sustainable cold chains. These initiatives include a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Haryana to develop a renewable-powered state cold-chain system, and a net-zero packhouse programme in Bihar that is helping farmers reduce losses and raise incomes. “We lose 12 percent of all food grown each year for lack of reliable refrigeration,” he said. “That is a climate and development crisis we can fix.”
Maricel Castro, Technical Officer for Vaccine Supply Chain and Logistics at the World Health Organization, referred to cold chains as “strategic lifelines.” She detailed how solar direct-drive refrigerators have transformed vaccine delivery in countries like Niger, reducing outages and wastage while expanding immunization services. “We are protecting far more than vaccines. We are protecting lives,” she stated. Castro remarked that, through the Gavi Cold Chain Equipment Optimisation Platform, more than 40,000 units have been deployed, reducing outages and wastage.
Transitioning from health to food systems, Ioannis Vaskalis, Natural Resources Officer at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), explained how sustainable cold chains can unlock zero hunger goals. He showcased FAO’s work in Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia, where renewable-powered cold storage is reducing post-harvest losses and strengthening market access for smallholder farmers. “Over 526 million tonnes of food are lost each year due to inadequate refrigeration,” he noted. “Solar-driven cold chains can turn that waste into nutrition, income and climate progress.” Vaskalis also referenced FAO’s work to develop dairy cold chains in East Africa.
With the policy context set by the opening keynotes, the panel discussion turned to technological innovation. Roberta Evangelista, Senior Digitalization Specialist at the BASE Foundation, introduced the Your Virtual Cold Chain Assistant (Your VCCA) project, which aims to improve smallholder farmers’ geographic and financial access to solar-powered, decentralized cold rooms operating on a Cooling-as-a-Service model, through digitalization and capacity-building. The Coldtivate app, launched under the Your VCCA initiative, enables farmers and local businesses to manage inventory, track the remaining shelf life of the stored crops in storage, find buyers, and monitor the revenue and impact generated by the cold room. In pilot projects across India, Nigeria, Guinea-Bissau, and Iraq, Your VCCA has reduced post-harvest losses by up to 60 percent, while increasing revenues by 40 percent. “But technology alone is not enough,” she warned. “We need solutions that are accessible and designed for the people who depend on them most.”
From digital tools, the focus moved to energy storage. Vishnu Sasidharan, Vice President and Business Head of Climate Technologies at Pluss Advanced Technologies, explained how phase-change materials (PCMs) act as thermal batteries, enabling cold rooms to operate efficiently even in off-grid areas. “By integrating PCMs, we can bridge the gap between intermittent renewable energy and 24/7 cooling,” Vishnu explained. He highlighted an 80-tonne PCM-equipped solar cold room in Odisha, India, run by a women’s self-help group, which provides reliable cooling to local farmers while eliminating diesel dependence.
Danfoss Vice President of Industrial Refrigeration Anatoly Mikhailov focused on the importance of efficiency, demonstrating how combining high-efficiency equipment with natural refrigerants, such as ammonia and CO₂, can reduce warehouse energy use by 10–20 percent, high-global warming potential (GWP) F-gases. “This is about economics, as much as technology,” Mikhailov said. “With payback periods often under three years, efficiency and natural refrigerants represent the fastest, most cost-effective path to scaling climate-friendly cold chains.”
Bringing the discussion back to implementation, Guntram Glasbrenner, Programme Manager at GIZ Proklima International, shared results from solar-powered cold chain projects in Burkina Faso and Malawi that use natural refrigerants and remote monitoring to cut losses and emissions. He cautioned, however, that technology alone will not deliver results. “Cold chains succeed when they are anchored in local capacity,” he said. “We need to train technicians, strengthen policy, and create financing models that match the realities on the ground.”
The subsequent Q&A session drilled into real-world challenges. Participants asked how to prevent cold rooms from sitting idle, with panellists stressing the importance of right-sizing facilities and linking them to local business models. Financing questions dominated the chat, with speakers pointing to pay-per-use models and public-private collaboration as emerging solutions. When asked about passive cooling innovations for remote sites, panellists noted the role of PCM-equipped vaccine carriers in bridging last-mile gaps.
In his closing remarks, Siddhanta tied the conversation together. “Cold chains have shifted from background logistics to a frontline adaptation tool,” he stated. “They decide whether farmers prosper, vaccines reach those who need them, and emissions come down. The task ahead is to scale what works and ensure these solutions reach every community that needs them.”
More on the event, including speaker presentations and the recording here.