Background
ACES was established in 2020 by the Governments of Rwanda and the United Kingdom (UK), the United Nations Environment Programme’s United for Efficiency (U4E) initiative, the Centre for Sustainable Cooling, and the University of Rwanda (UR). ACES is pursued through the Rwanda Cooling Initiative (R-COOL), a joint Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA) and U4E programme to advance the country’s sustainable development priorities and ambitions for enhanced collaboration on sustainable cooling throughout the continent. It is in line with Government commitments on climate change, the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, and sustainable development.
Mission
The mission of ACES is to develop and accelerate uptake of sustainable cold chain solutions in the agriculture and health sectors throughout Africa. ACES will economically empower farmers, increase export revenues, enhance job creation in rural areas, mitigate climate and environment impacts, and foster low-carbon development. Food cold chains, integrated with other cold-dependent services such as vaccine distribution, will be demonstrated in showcase “Living Laboratories” in Rwanda and more broadly in the coming years.
The Centre was officially launched in November 2020 and is hosted by UR at its Rubirizi Campus in Kigali. As it becomes fully operation, ACES will connect local and international experts, investors, private companies, farmers’ organisations, and energy and logistics providers. Living Laboratories will be deployed in strategic locations in rural areas and will conduct research and offer technical assistance, demonstrations and knowledge transfer to rural communities.
Rubirizi site of UR designated for hosting ACES
Key activities
ACES is executed in four phases :
Recent achievements
ACES has achieved key milestones since its launch in November 2020, including:
Recognition :
Contacts :
Juliet Kebara : DG, REMA, info@rema.gov.rw
Issa Nkurunziza : ACES Lead, UNEP U4E Issa.Nkurunziza@un.org
Prof. Toby Peters : University of Birmingham T.Peters@bham.ac.uk
Brian Holuj : Cooling Portfolio Manager, UNEP U4E Brian.Holuj@un.org
Dr. Guillaume Nyagatare, Principal of College of Agriculture, Animal Sciences and Veterinary Medicine (CAVM), UR principal.cavm@ur.ac.rw
Dr. Jean Baptiste Ndahetuye : UR j.ndahetuye@ur.ac.rw