Cooling for All: The role of cold chain in delivering a COVID-19 vaccine

The briefing examines the critical role of cold chains in COVID-19 vaccine distribution, highlighting the gap between current infrastructure and the requirements of new vaccine candidates, some of which need ultra-low temperatures (-70C to -80C). It identifies significant barriers in low- and middle-income countries, including unreliable energy access, outdated equipment, and high upfront costs. The report argues that achieving herd immunity requires a massive expansion of sustainable, energy-efficient cold chains and proposes strategies such as 'Cooling as a Service' (CaaS), public-private partnerships like Project Last Mile, and a 'last mile' planning approach to ensure equitable access.

• Achieving herd immunity for COVID-19 may require vaccinating 6070 percent of the global population, which equates to approximately 4.7 to 5.5 billion people.
• Cold chains contribute significantly to global greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for approximately 1 percent of global GHG emissions, with developed economies seeing a higher share of 33.5 percent.
• Energy instability is a major barrier in developing regions; for example, 2013 data indicates that 46 percent of health facilities in India and over 30 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa lack electricity access.
• The financial cost of vaccine wastage due to temperature excursions is estimated at USD 34.1 billion annually.
• Current cold chain capacity is insufficient for global equitable access; one estimate suggests freezing temperature delivery is only possible for 2.5 billion people across 25 developed countries.
• Innovative business models like 'Cooling as a Service' (CaaS) and public-private partnerships such as Project Last Mile (utilizing Coca-Cola's supply chain) are proposed to overcome high upfront costs and last-mile delivery hurdles.

APA

Peters, T., Jose, A., Hartley, B., Yavari, S., Motmans, T., Corno, V., Karamitsos, D., Dube, S., & Dean, B. (2020). Cooling for All: The role of cold chain in delivering a COVID-19 vaccine. Sustainable Energy for All. https://www.seforall.org/system/files/2020-11/Medical-Cold-Chains-Briefing-Note-SEforALL.pdf

Chicago

Peters, Toby, Alvin Jose, Ben Hartley, Shahrzad Yavari, Thomas Motmans, Veronica Corno, Dimitris Karamitsos, Sanjay Dube, and Brian Dean. Cooling for All: The role of cold chain in delivering a COVID-19 vaccine. Sustainable Energy for All, 2020. https://www.seforall.org/system/files/2020-11/Medical-Cold-Chains-Briefing-Note-SEforALL.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{peters2020cooling, author = {Peters, Toby and Jose, Alvin and Hartley, Ben and Yavari, Shahrzad and Motmans, Thomas and Corno, Veronica and Karamitsos, Dimitris and Dube, Sanjay and Dean, Brian}, title = {{Cooling for All: The role of cold chain in delivering a COVID-19 vaccine}}, institution = {Sustainable Energy for All}, year = {2020}, month = nov, url = {https://www.seforall.org/system/files/2020-11/Medical-Cold-Chains-Briefing-Note-SEforALL.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }