Brian Holuj, Strategic Delivery Lead for the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold-Chain (ACES) on behalf of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) United for Efficiency (U4E), overviews the ACES Engagement Day hosted on Friday, 21 October for Global Off-Grid Solar Forum attendees to further cold chain collaboration. A rainy season downpour could not dampen the enthusiastic deliberations of the more than 70 experts gathered at the ACES headquarters on 21 October ...Read More
Ghana Poised to Reap the Benefits of Sustainable Public Procurement of Efficient and Climate-Friendly Cooling
Government agencies in Ghana are poised to drive a major switch to efficient and climate-friendly cooling thanks to new sustainable public procurement (SPP) protocols introduced with technical assistance from UNEP U4E. On 2 September 2022, representatives of Ghana’s Energy Commission, led by Hubert Zan and Edwin Kwasi Tamakloe, and UNEP-U4E delivered training on SPP to government officials from the Ministry of Health (MOH) and Ghana Health Service (GHS). The training focused on air ...Read More
NOVOTEC Dealers of BOSCH Joins ECOFRIDGES GHANA
Ghana Energy Commission and UNEP U4E are honored to announce a new partner vendor, Novotec, which is approved to sell two refrigerator models which are compliant with the rigorous requirements of ECOFRIDGES GO. Novotec is joining four existing partner vendors: SML Ghana, Ederick, Sun Electronics, and Nesstra who offer their own range of ECOFRIDGES GO approved products. The ECOWAS Refrigerators and Air Conditioners Initiative (ECOFRIDGES) is a joint project in Ghana and Senegal, which aims to ...Read More
How Chile is putting its ageing refrigerators out to pasture
Rosa Cordero, who is diabetic, remembers a time when she couldn’t store her insulin safely. Her refrigerator was old and unreliable, and she never knew if the temperature was cool enough to store the drug. Not only was the fridge imperilling her insulin supplies, it was also causing her food to rot, driving up her electricity bills, and hurting the environment. Cordero, who lives in Santiago, the capital of Chile, does not have a lot of money to spend on appliances. But thanks to United ...Read More
Go Green, Save Money: How the ECOFRIDGES GO Programme has benefited Ghana
The United Nations Environment Programme's United for Efficiency (U4E) initiative, Basel Agency for Sustainable Energy (BASE) and the Energy Commission of Ghana are excited to unveil a new video documenting the implementation of the ECOFRIDGES GO programme in Ghana. Through interactions with different stakeholders, the video explores the key benefits realised by the programme and its anticipated impacts. According to the IPCC, West Africa constitutes one of the many hotspots of climate ...Read More
Mainstreaming enhanced cooling targets in Nigeria’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) and implementing priority interventions
On Thursday, 3 February 2022, in Abuja, the Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN) in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and UNEP United for Efficiency (U4E) initiative formally launched the project, Scaling Up Energy-Efficient and Climate-Friendly Cooling in Nigeria’s NDC Revision. In his welcoming remarks, the ECN Director-General/CEO, Professor Eli Jidere Bala, stated that “the project is aimed at accelerating the transition to climate-friendly, low-global ...Read More
A New Opportunity for Rwandans to Affordably Purchase Appliances that can Reduce Electricity Bills and Impacts on the Environment
Today, Rwanda’s Ministry of Environment through the Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA) launched the Rwanda Cooling Initiative’s Green On-Wage (R-COOL GO) financing mechanism – through which environmentally friendly refrigerators and air conditioners will be more widely accessible and affordable in Rwanda. Eligible salaried employees from the public and private sectors may request loans from participating banks to purchase new cooling appliances that meet strict performance ...Read More
UNEP U4E and SIE Announce a New Sustainable Public Procurement Collaboration
The United Nations Environment Programme’s United for Efficiency (UNEP U4E) and Société d'Ingénierie Energétique (SIE), the Moroccan state-owned energy services company, are delighted to announce their collaboration to promote sustainable public procurement in Morocco. The potential energy savings of energy efficient cooling appliances stands at 1.1 TWh annually in the country. The parties will take a cohesive approach to address technical, financial, and regulatory considerations, drawing ...Read More
New #Refriclaje campaign in Chile aims to replace 1,600 inefficient refrigerators in just one month
In November 2021, Chile launched Refriclaje, a refrigerator replacement campaign, that aims to replace and recycle old and inefficient devices and raise awareness of their impact on the environment, and on the household budget. The campaign will run until 26 December 2021 and hopes to replace 1,600 appliances in that time. It is expected to collect almost 100 tons of material, which will be sent to a recycling plant for environmentally sound management. Refriclaje marks the culmination of the ...Read More
UNEP-U4E and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory launch refrigeration guidelines that could avoid millions of tonnes of emissions each year
The United Nations Environment Programme’s United for Efficiency initiative (U4E) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory today launched Model Regulation Guidelines for commercial refrigeration with the potential to save annual greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 65 power plants – helping to back the stronger climate action needed to ward off the worst impacts of climate change. If the Guidelines’ minimum efficiency level ambition scenario is pursued across all developing and emerging ...Read More