•   Distinguished participants, ladies and gentlemen,

•    It is a pleasure to engage on this topic which is so critical to the future of Africa’s sustainable development, and undoubtedly critical for our friends throughout the developing world.

•    Thank you for the fruitful discussions on powering sustainable cold chain solutions.

•    I would like to briefly recap some key context and then extend a special invitation to you.

•    As we have heard, around one-third of greenhouse emissions globally come from agriculture.

•    In sub-Saharan Africa, between 30% and 50% of the food we produce is lost at various points of the value chains.

•    Rwanda’s Cabinet issued a National Cooling Strategy in 2019 with a stark synthesis of these considerations and recommendations to tackle cooling challenges directly and holistically.

•    In the same year, we endorsed the Rome Declaration on the Contribution of the Montreal Protocol for Food Loss Reduction through Sustainable Cold Chain Development, which recognised the key role of the cold chain in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals related to ending hunger and poverty, food security, improved nutrition, climate action, sustainable agriculture and fisheries, health and well-being.

•   Cooling is complex and cuts across agriculture, health, and industry sectors.

Therefore, it needs to be addressed comprehensively and continuously.

•    Narrow and short-term interventions will not suffice if we are serious about the issues before us – for example, occasional reports, isolated areas of research, a few training courses, or one-off demonstrations of cold stores or other equipment in lieu of an integrated system simply will not bring about the rapid and large-scale transformation that is needed.

•    Therefore, I invite you to join and support the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold-Chain (ACES) – a newly established, game changing initiative that is pan-African in scope and designed to disrupt a business-as-usual scenario that is no longer viable.

•    ACES aims to unlock the pathway for Africans to lead the word in the sustainable cooling and cold chain arenas.

•    Over the past year, the Governments of Rwanda and the United Kingdom have partnered with the United Nations Environment Programme’s United for Efficiency Team, the Centre for Sustainable Cooling, and leading universities to launch and operationalize ACES.

•   It is a permanent Centre of Excellence that is truly interdisciplinary and tailored

to address the myriad challenges that we explored in today’s session.

•    ACES offers a strategic approach to pursue applied research into areas of greatest need, support entrepreneurs by linking them with investors, teach new students as well as build the expertise of seasoned equipment technicians and local farmers, and interface with officials on policies that enable cold-chain solutions to thrive.

•    ACES is designed as a hub and spoke model, with its headquarters at the University of Rwanda’s Rubirizi campus in Kigali serving as the central point for developing innovative solutions and convening international collaborators.

•    The headquarters will interconnect with a network of affiliated “living laboratories” throughout Africa.

•    These cooling hubs in rural locations will implement and help refine the market- based solutions for the cold-chain and post-harvest management developed by the Centre, exchanging lessons learned and inspiring other rural communities to scale-up these approaches.

•    We established governance structures with top officials and experts from the public, private, academic and civil-society sectors, including from the East African Community Secretariat and African Union to ensure continental-scale representation.

•    ACES offers an unparalleled opportunity to help meet national development targets while fulfilling obligations under the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol and the Paris Climate Agreement.

•    Rwanda is delighted to host and lead the pan African Centre of Excellence in cooling and cold chain which will deliver solutions needed to underpin a

prosperous, healthy, integrated, and climate-friendly Africa. Please reach out to Rwanda’s Ministry of Environment, UNEP United for Efficiency, the University of Rwanda or our partners from the UK to get involved as Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold-Chain (ACES) blazes this new trail.

•    Together we will deliver solutions needed to underpin a prosperous, healthy, integrated, and climate-friendly Africa and the rest of the World.

•   Thank you for organizing this great event, we look forward to the journey ahead.