COP28 Side Event: Greener Reefers - introducing climate and environmentally friendly maritime cooling containers

Around 3 million reefer containers are currently shipped around the world, and the number is growing annually. Reefer containers are vital for trading chilled and frozen products globally. On their journey however, reefer containers contribute notably to the emissions released by the container shipping industry (236 million tCO2eq. in 2018) and the reefer sector is projected to grow rapidly up to +8% p.a..

To date, reefers almost exclusively use HFCs refrigerants with very high GWPs. Alternatives have not been upscaled or have been prototyped yet not made commercially available. The Greener Reefers Alliance focuses on the environmentally sustainable and climate-friendly alternatives as well as improving the energy efficiency of this sector.

The reefer industry has not been regulated by the Paris Agreement so far since the emissions can hardly be attributed to a specific country. However, the International Maritime Organization has published a GHG emissions reduction strategy. The Greener Reefers Alliance aims to promote sustainable reefer solutions and develop different emissions reduction and financing strategies.

In this Side Event, GIZ and its partners will present the current climate impact of reefers and potential mitigation strategies as. To go a step further, the Greener Reefers Alliance will be launched, a comprehensive approach to establish an enabling environment for the introduction and adoption of Greener Reefers.