ShareAgri-Cool at Zero Emission Food Cold Chain workshop
The AGRI-COOL project was featured in the Invited Talks session of the Zero Emission Food Cold Chain workshop (18 May 2026), alongside other projects and initiatives tackling decarbonisation across the food cold chain.
On that day, experts from universities and industry gathered for the hybrid event, which opened with a dedicated ZECC (Zero Emission Cold Chain) session covering whole systems analysis, decarbonisation roadmaps, finance, and post-harvest management.
The afternoon Invited Talks session drew on a wider set of perspectives, with speakers addressing food cold chain challenges in wholesale distribution, European supply chain emissions targets for 2050, transport and commercial refrigeration, the resilience of the UK's cold supply chain to rising temperatures, the challenges of maintaining frozen temperatures, centres of excellence for sustainable cooling in Africa, and sustainable cooling infrastructure for fisheries in Indonesia. Among the speakers, Anna Pacak from the International Institute of Refrigeration (IIR) presented AGRI-COOL, a project developing solar-powered cold storage systems for rural communities in Africa — currently being tested in South Africa, Cape Verde, Somalia, and Zimbabwe. The session closed with a panel discussion on the opportunities and challenges ahead for decarbonising the UK food cold chain.