On 4 December 2025, Nigeria's National Council on Climate Change (NCCC) and Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) held the first Cooling Marketplace session in Lagos, aimed at advancing sustainable cooling through targeted finance mobilisation. The initiative builds on the framework of the Mission Efficiency Marketplace and marks the launch of a national platform to transform cooling priorities into investment-ready projects.
The event responds to findings from Chilling Prospects 2025, which highlights that around 125 million Nigerians are at risk due to inadequate access to cooling. These risks span sectors including food security, healthcare, and urban resilience. Simultaneously, an estimated 101 million people are expected to purchase low-cost cooling appliances, which could result in long-term energy inefficiency and increased emissions if standards are not improved.
The Cooling Marketplace convened stakeholders from government, finance, industry, and philanthropy to address the country’s cooling “investment gap.” Sessions focused on Nigeria’s Kigali Amendment implementation, urban heat in Lagos, and strategies to align standards and financing mechanisms with national priorities.
Breakout discussions covered agriculture and cold chains, healthcare and vaccine storage, and urban cooling in buildings. Key actions proposed included promoting cooling-as-a-service, shared cold storage for farmer clusters, efficient facility designs for health centres, and expanding minimum energy performance standards (MEPS) alongside technical capacity building. Participants also identified district cooling as a potential future opportunity.
“For Nigeria, sustainable cooling is a climate priority. This Marketplace supports the National Council on Climate Change’s mandate to coordinate action across sectors, strengthen implementation, and ensure cooling policies translate into concrete, investable solutions that deliver results on the ground,” said Uboho Ekpo, Principal Scientific Officer, NCCC.
The event concluded with plans to form a Nigeria Cooling Community of Practice, led by an NCCC-hosted secretariat and working groups focused on policy, finance, capacity building, and sectoral solutions. Early deliverables include a national sustainable cooling brief, investment guides, packaged projects for investors, and impact measurement tools.
“Nigeria needs cooling solutions that are affordable, efficient, and scalable. This Marketplace creates a practical space to align policy, finance, and industry, turning cooling priorities into investment-ready projects with real development impact,” said Emeka Oragunye, Regional Director, Africa, SEforALL.
Participants, including the World Bank IFC, view this first session as a foundation for future collaboration and nationwide scale-up of sustainable cooling efforts.
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