Context
In many countries, food cold chains remain critically underdeveloped, leading to significant food loss and a cascade of social, economic, environmental, and health impacts. The scale of this loss is staggering: the amount of food spoiled due to inadequate cold storage and transport could feed an estimated 1 billion people in a world where over 735 million people remain undernourished.
For populations that depend heavily on agriculture, cold chain infrastructure can be transformative. It improves income stability, supports rural livelihoods, strengthens food and nutrition security, and reduces food loss, thereby lowering climate emissions. Globally, cold chain-related emissions account for around 4% of total greenhouse gas emissions, including both the emissions from refrigeration technologies and those caused by avoidable food loss and waste.
Cold chains are also vital to public health resilience, including equitable vaccine delivery, yet many regions still lack the basic infrastructure required to maintain safe temperatures during transport and storage.
In today’s context of climate extremes, geopolitical instability, and rising food insecurity, robust and sustainable cold chains are not a luxury but a lifeline. Despite their importance, many governments lack:
- Baseline data on cold chain infrastructure and needs
- Awareness of the full development benefits of cold chain investment
- Systems-level strategies that integrate food, energy, and climate priorities
Key barriers include:
- Fragmented planning and lack of integrated approaches
- Gaps in data, forecasting, and performance monitoring
- Shortage of technical skills and awareness
- Inadequate or unreliable energy access in many regions
- Weak or absent legislation and performance standards
- Scarcity of demonstration projects to prove viability
Objectives
The Cold Chain Working Group aims to support countries in building resilient, low-emission cold chains that deliver across the food–climate–energy–health nexus.
Our priorities include:
- Supporting national governments to assess infrastructure gaps and develop sustainable cold chain strategies
- Building institutional and technical capacity for deploying low-emission, energy-efficient technologies
- Creating an ecosystem of multi-stakeholder collaboration to coordinate development at scale
- Advancing data-driven planning, standard-setting, and integration into climate, agriculture, and energy policies
This work directly contributes to the global target of reducing food loss by at least 25%, set by the Food is Never Waste Coalition, and reinforces the cold chain’s role in a just energy transition.
Latest Updates
India Approves National Packhouse Design Guidelines
India’s Bureau of Energy Efficiency has given in-principle approval for launching National Design Guidelines for Energy Efficient Packhouses. Developed with UNEP, the guidelines will be rolled out across India and tested in Bihar and Haryana demonstration sites to drive clean, RE-integrated cold chains.
Bihar Recognizes Cold Chains as Adaptation Priority
Bihar’s 2024 Climate-Resilient & Low Carbon Development Report identifies cold chains as a core strategy for climate adaptation and agricultural resilience.
Scalable Demo Project Underway in Bihar
A detailed project eeport is being developed for Bihar’s Mithila Union demo, aimed at scaling across 1,600 packhouse sites. The model addresses heat impacts on agriculture, boosts rural livelihoods, reduces food loss, and cuts GHG emissions.
Haryana Drafting First State Cold Chain Policy
Haryana is developing India’s first state-level Cold Chain Policy to guide sustainable development and unlock USD 320M in funding via JICA and a new state subsidy scheme. The policy targets over 500 packhouses to support growing horticultural output.