coolingEU Breakfast Debate at the European Parliament

On 26 September, 40 stakeholders from politics, various industry sectors, academia and research gathered for the coolingEU Parliamentary Breakfast. Hosted by Martina Werner, MEP, supporters and observers of the forum discussed with the participants about possible ways forward towards an integrated and sustainable cooling sector that contributes to Europe’s fight against climate change.

Following a steep development and its official launch in June 2017, the coolingEU forum invited all interested stakeholders to join for a discussion on five core questions around the future of cooling. Thanks to Martina Werner’s willingness to host the coolingEU forum for a parliamentary breakfast the discussion event could take place within the walls of the European Parliament. Over the course of 2.5 years, the stakeholders involved in the forum worked on core barriers for a more sustainable cooling sector in the future. Without focusing on a specific sector the forum had looked into cross-sectorial issues, be it in high-temperature cooling in manufacturing industries, cooling of buildings or the refrigeration of food, stationary cooling or cooling in transport. The resulting questions were presented at the forum’s launching event in June and put forward for public discussion at this Parliamentary Breakfast on 26 September.

Following the introduction by Martina Werner, outlining the important role cooling is to play in the energy sector of the future and how crucial sustainable solutions are, Ingo Wagner, coordinator of coolingEU presented the format and background of the breakfast. With Professor Toby Peters it was the task of the Chair of the Academic Mirror Group to give a brief insight in the world of future technologies. To ensure that these technologies could be used to their full potential, they will have to be showcased together in living labs. As it turns out this would also raise what was needed so much to create momentum: awareness, a key issue discussed with Anne-Claire Streck from ECTP. Awareness that is according to Vincenzo Belletti, EHPA, also key for data collection as only awareness creates the attention that is needed to promote the communication of data. Building on this Martin Dieryckx, EPEE, outlined that policies had an important roles to play in these developments as well as for the roll-out of sustainable technologies on the market. Only when their contributions are recognized by policies, new and existing cooling technologies could be successful across Europe. Closing the event, Martina Werner welcomed the outcomes of the discussion and invited the forum to continue the exchange in the future.

The supporters and observes of the coolingEU forum would like to thank Martina Werner for hosting this discussion and all speakers and participants for their contributions. We are looking forward to further events and exchanges.

If you want to learn more about the activities of coolingEU, please do not hesitate to contact the secretariat via email under [email protected].

coolingEU website