With COP27 starting in just a few days, we wanted to let you know what cooling events are planned for the two weeks in Sharm El-Sheikh. From sustainable cities and cold chains, to energy efficiency and passive cooling, there are lots of great cooling events scheduled at COP27.

Please find a preliminary list of events below. We will update the list as new events are announced and details are confirmed. All times are EET. 

We hope to see stakeholders from all around the world participate in discussions, announce new commitments to energy-efficient, climate-friendly cooling, and demonstrate the leadership we need to achieve climate and development goals.

Wednesday, November 9th

Cities taking the lead on heat action

08:00-08:45 – Resilience Hub

Arsht-Rock

During this session the Mayors of Freetown, Sierra Leone, Monterrey, Mexico and the former Mayor of Quito, Ecuador will join our Chief Heat Officers from Athens, Greece and Santiago de Chile to discuss best practices for addressing extreme heat related risks to protect urban population and the economy from the threat of this “silent killer.”

The Mayor of Monterrey will present the “Joint Declaration of Climate Emergency” for 20 Municipalities in Mexico, while the former Mayor of Quito will describe the Global Heat Advocacy Strategy that the City Champions for Heat Action Mayors are implementing to advance the urban extreme heat agenda with top world leaders and organizations.

Watch the session here.

Announcement: First Global Ambassador for Heat Action

10:45-11:00 – Resilience Hub

Arsht-Rock

To drive support for heat mitigation and adaptation at an international scale, Arsht-Rock will partner with the former President of Mexico Felipe Calderón to take on the role of the first-ever Global Ambassador for Heat Action. During the event, Arsht-Rock will present President Calderón with his new position at COP27. Join us to learn more about the role!

Watch the session here.

The Cool Capital Stack: Investing in cooling solutions to protect people and their livelihoods

11:00-12:00 – Resilience Hub

Extreme Heat Resilience Alliance

Investing in cooling solutions to protect people’s health, well-being and livelihoods is essential. Heat is a multi-faceted challenge with broad implications on public health, communities and the systems that connect and sustain them. This will be a conversation featuring private, public and civil society actors who are making tangible progress towards scaled solutions that cool cities, delivering critical health, equity, resilience and economic outcomes.

The session will also launch the Cool Capital Stack, a new initiative of the Adrienne Arsht Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center to mobilize all forms of capital to invest in cooling solutions that protect people and their livelihoods from extreme heat.

ClimateWorks’ Helen Mountford is scheduled to speak at this event.

Watch the session here.

Climate-friendly energy for securing positive health outcomes

17:00-18:15 – WHO Health Pavilion

World Bank ESMAP

SDG3 (Good health and well-being) is closely linked to SDG7 (Affordable and clean energy) and SDG13 (Climate action). The Covid-19 pandemic has shown how energy is critical to power health facilities and medical cold chains for the delivery of vaccines and how climate-friendly investments in this regard can leave a lasting legacy. The session will examine the energy-health-climate nexus by highlighting impactful initiatives and country examples across the following key topics: electrification of healthcare facilities through renewable energy and deployment of climate-friendly medical cold chains to deliver vaccines.

Watch the session here.

Thursday, November 10th

Announcement: #ThisIsCool Youth Innovation Challenge Winners

11:45-12:15 – SDG7 Pavilion

SEforALL

Watch the session here.

Friday, November 11th

Fast-action mitigation to slow warming in this decisive decade

09:00-10:00 – U.S. Pavilion

WRI, IGSD

We’re running two simultaneous races to keep the 1.5°C guardrail within reach, and we need to win both. We need to succeed in the sprint to cut methane and other super climate pollutants this decade so that we can slow warming and stay in the marathon to decarbonize by 2050.

This event focuses on the science-backed solutions and strategies for cutting non-CO2 greenhouse gases that can get us around the curve toward the net-zero finish line — while improving air quality and ensuring the health of humans and the planet.

Watch the session here.

Banking for net zero: Practical tools for emerging market financial institutions to accelerate decarbonization

09:00-10:00 – RCREEE Pavilion

Cool Up Programme

Learn more here.

District Cooling: A low carbon solution to cool cities

13:00-14:30 – RCREEE Pavilion

Cool Coalition, RCREEE, Cool Up Programme

The goal of the event is to provide a call to action to local and national governments, real-estate developers, investors, and utilities about the urgent need to implement sustainable cooling solutions to decarbonize cities, and raise awareness on available solutions like district cooling. This session will raise awareness about the environmental, social, and economic benefits of district cooling. It will also showcase the innovative, local and scalable district cooling approaches already being implemented by cities globally and the opportunities for their application in the MENA region.

Learn more here.

Saturday, November 12th

Shedding light on a blind spot: Leveraging the vast emissions reduction potential of correct disposal of refrigerants to achieve NDCs

11:30-13:00 – IETA Hub

GIZ, Climate and Ozone Protection Alliance (COPA)

The global demand for refrigeration and air conditioning continues to grow and with that the stock of appliances, foams and products containing substances with a high global warming potential. These so-called banks of Ozon Depleting Substances (ODS) and Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) are not being managed or disposed in an environmentally sound manner and emit substances equivalent to approximately 1.5 Gt CO2 each year.

The focus of the side event is to highlight the potential of managing ODS and HFC banks and how it can be used to raise NDC ambitions.

Learn more here.

Sustainable cold chains: The missing link for sustainable development

15:30-17:30 – Italy Pavilion

UNEP, Cool Coalition, Italy, FAO

The session will showcase that acting on a sustainable cold chain offers a multi-faceted win for people and the planet. During the event, the challenges and opportunities for promoting sustainable food cold chain will be highlighted. A joint report from UNEP and FAO will be launched, outlining existing best practices and making recommendations for governments and industry to accelerate sustainable cold chains development to ensure food security, mitigate of climate change and impacts of foods system.

Learn more here.

Deploying a broad portfolio of technology solutions to advance energy transition and decarbonization

18:30-20:00 – Tutankhamun side event room

Cool Up Programme

Learn more here.

Monday, November 14th

The clean heating and cooling forum

16:45-18:15 – Tutankhamun side event room

IIF/IIR, EPHA

Globally, heating and cooling contribute almost 40% of emissions from energy-related sources. Delivering clean heating and cooling in buildings and food chains can align climate policy with development goals. This session will dive into these frontier challenges, exploring policy, technology and models needed

Watch the session here.

Strengthening action on resilience to extreme heat and advancing climate friendly cooling

17:00-18:00 – UN Climate Change Global Innovation Hub Pavilion

NRDC, MOEFCC, UNFCCC

Watch the session here.

Tuesday, November 15th

‘After Kigali Amendment’ – Towards a National Cooling Plan in Türkiye

10:00-12:00 – Türkiye Pavilion

Cool Up Programme

Learn more here.

Beating the heat: Accelerating access to sustainable climate solutions in cities

13:30-16:30 – Buildings Pavilion

Cool Coalition, RMI, SEforALL, WWF

Cooling in a warming world has become an adaptation imperative. Countries across the globe have witnessed record high temperatures in 2022 and by 2050, 50-75% of the global population will be exposed to life-threatening extreme heat and humidity due to climate change. This thematic session will explore opportunities for cities to accelerate access to sustainable climate solutions. It will also present best practices from around the world, with a focus on solutions to beat the rising heat with green, sustainable and inclusive approaches.

Watch the session here.

Catalyzing the sustainable cooling shift: Doubling climate benefits

14:00-15:00 – IsDB Pavilion

Cool Up Programme

Watch the session here.

Wednesday, November 16th

Beat the heat: Nature for Cool Cities Challenge

09:00-10:00 – SDG7 Pavilion

SEforALL, Cool Coalition, RMI, WWF

Our cities are getting hotter and nature can help reduce urban temperatures and increase thermal comfort for urban dwellers. The cooling benefits of nature-based solutions (NbS) are well documented, but they need to be better understood and leveraged to increase implementation and bring about change at a global level. The “Beat the Heat: Nature for Cool Cities Challenge” is asking participants to pledge to increase the implementation of NbS in their urban areas by 2030 and demonstrate tangible progress by 2024. Participants will be asked to commit to at least one qualitative goal and three implementation actions to back their pledge.

CCC’s Axum Teferra is scheduled to speak at this event.

Watch the session here.

Sustainable cooling: A multipurpose tool to deliver on net-zero, adaptation, food and energy security

13:15-14:45 – Osiris side event room

UNEP, Viet Nam, BASE, Cool Coalition

Cooling is the key to protect communities from rising temperatures, keep food safe, vaccines stable, accelerate the energy transition and get to net-zero. By scaling up sustainable cooling solutions we can deliver on mitigation and adaptation goals, while strengthening food and energy systems. This session will present cooling as a multipurpose tool that support in achieving net zero goals, better adaptation as well as food and energy security.

CCC’s Axum Teferra is scheduled to speak at this event.

Watch the session here.

SDG7 and Cooling for All: Delivering solutions at the last mile #ThisIsCool

16:30-17:30 – SDG7 Pavilion

SEforALL, Carbon Trust, World Bank ESMAP

Access to climate-smart and sustainable cooling can accelerate SDG 7 and catalyze equitable, resilient development for rural populations in a warming world. Yet this requires a holistic systems approach to create enabling ecosystems through bringing together all the key stakeholders and making the best of what they each have to offer. This session will highlight the synergies between sustainable access to energy and cooling in rural areas and demonstrate how they are inextricably linked, showcasing how cooling, powered by distributed renewable energy can change – and save – lives.

Watch the session here.

Thursday, November 17th

The Cool Move: Low carbon cold chain and agro-logistic revolution for emerging markets

14:30-15:15 – Food Systems Pavilion

Rabobank

The lack of cold storage infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa is a critical bottleneck to the development of local value chains and a major contributor towards for food losses, especially in the rapidly emerging fruits, vegetables, dairy, livestock and fishery sectors. Currently, most local value chains suffer from poor cold chain infrastructure, lack of access to relevant and suitable financing mechanisms, lack of access to markets, knowledge and technology.

This cold chain event will focus on promoting the development of cold chain solutions (both accessibility and utilization) in rural areas, based on bankable and scalable business models, via appropriate financial solutions and backed by market linkages and data.

CCC’s Axum Teferra is scheduled to moderate this event.

Watch the session here.