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How to maximize the historical opportunity to improve cooling efficiency

Date
Date
Wednesday 13 February 2019, 12:00 - 13:30
Venue
Roger Stevens Building Lecture Theatre 17
Speaker
Dan Hamza-Goodacre, Executive Director, Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program (K-CEP)

Abstract

Leeds has a joint school of engineering with South West Jiao Tong University in Chengdu (a.k.a. “the Panda City”) and a Living Lab collaboration with Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Our university community also has a general interest in Public Health Issues of sustainable development in the growing megacities of the Global South. Thus Energy Leeds and the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Leeds are proudly sponsoring an important seminar during the Chinese lunar calendar “back to work” transition into the year of the Pig 2019.

On this occasion Dan Hamza-Goodacre, Executive Director of the Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program (K-CEP), a global initiative working in over 50 countries, will visit the University of Leeds. K-CEP supports the Kigali Amendment of the Montreal Protocol by focusing on the integration of efficiency with the phase down of highly polluting refrigerants.

Dan has agreed to represent his keynote seminar “How to maximize the historical opportunity to improve cooling efficiency” from the Third International ASHRAE Conference on Efficient Building Design that was convened at American University Beirut 3rd-4th October 2018. Dan Hamza-Goodacre will explain how the Montreal Protocol that has already avoided global warming and can contribute another half degree of avoided warming while delivering Millennium Development Goals.

Current cooling technologies, such as air-conditioning and refrigeration, rely on human-made F-gases that are almost 10,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide in causing global warming. Left unchecked, F-gases could account for nearly 20 percent of climate pollution by 2050, which is why the F-gas phase down of Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol is such an historic agreement. Cooling also uses huge amounts of energy, often fossil fuels, and is therefore a critical carbon emissions reduction challenge.

Cooling is often overlooked as an urgent development issue. More than 1 billion people lack access to energy and therefore are likely to lack access to cooling as well. Yet only 0.04%t of total Overseas Development Assistance is directed to cooling solutions. The economic and social costs of not ensuring sustainable and affordable cooling access for all are poorly understood and not widely disseminated. As a result, countries may be locked into costly, high-carbon, energy-inefficient cooling pathways.

Timely Press Release from UN Environment News and Media Unit: “World takes a stand against powerful greenhouse gases with implementation of Kigali Amendment” 2nd January 2019

Biography

Dan Hamza-Goodacre is Executive Director of the Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program, a global initiative helping developing countries improve the efficiency of cooling as they reduce pollution from F-gases. Dan has worked on sustainable development in the public and private sectors across the globe for over 20 years. Prior to K-CEP, Dan was Director of Buildings and Industry at ClimateWorks. Before working in philanthropy, Dan was with PwC, where he served as Deputy CEO of the Climate and Development Knowledge Network, a multi-lateral aid program to help developing countries respond to climate change. Dan held various posts with the U.K. Environment and Agriculture Ministry, including: Head of the Secretary of State’s office; co-founder of the UK’s Adapting to Climate Change Program; Adaptation Policy Lead for the UK Climate Change Act and Sustainable Agriculture Advisor. Dan also worked for the UK Foreign Office as a Climate Attaché. He is a regular speaker and moderator at conferences and events and has written widely on climate and development. Dan has an MSc in International Development from Bristol University, where he also lectured and researched global environmental politics. In his early career Dan lived and worked in the rainforests of Latin America.

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