In June 2025, the Government of India (GoI) proposed that all new air conditioning systems (ACs) in homes, commercial spaces, and vehicles must operate within the temperature range of 20°C to 28°C, with 24°C as the default setting. The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) estimates that this proposal could save 20 billion units of energy annually, amounting to ₹10,000 crores, along with reducing emissions by 16 million tonnes.
While such energy-saving measures are important, especially during periods of potential energy shortages, there are more fundamental issues that need to be addressed. Access to air conditioning is currently severely limited in developing countries, including India. Enhancing this access is urgently required both as a public health safeguard and as a necessity for adaptation to climate change.
By treating cooling primarily as an energy and emissions concern, the need to universalize access to cooling and provide public facilities that protect vulnerable populations from heat stress often gets sidelined. In India, access to air conditioning remains severely inadequate, and the main challenge is not excessive consumption but insufficiency.
## Cooling: A Critical Adaptation Need
As rising temperatures undermine both well-being and livelihoods, cooling is no longer just a matter of comfort for the global South, but a frontline adaptation need. Yet, in 2021, only 13% of urban and 1% of rural households in India owned an AC. While efficiency and behavioral measures can reduce the emissions footprint of existing users, without simultaneously prioritizing access for the most vulnerable, such policies risk becoming symbolic gestures that fail to confront deeper inequities at the heart of climate justice.
## Weathering Inequalities
While the national average of AC ownership in India is approximately 5%, it is overwhelmingly concentrated among the urban rich. For example, in 2021, the richest 10% in India—mostly residing in urban areas—owned 72% of the total ACs. This disparity is also reflected in interstate and regional differences. In Delhi, over 32% of households owned at least one AC, while in low-income states such as Bihar and Odisha, the figure dropped to just 1%.
Despite rising temperatures in these states, public provisioning of cooling infrastructure remains severely limited. This is compounded by unreliable power supply, high appliance costs, and poor building design.
The inter-country cooling divide is even starker and more inequitable. Developed countries have long enjoyed near-universal access to thermal comfort, primarily through widespread heating systems and, more recently, increased adoption of air conditioning. In 2020, nearly 90% of households in the U.S. and Japan owned an AC, compared to 22% in Central and South America and only 6% in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The per capita electricity consumption for space cooling is 7 GJ in the U.S.—over 28 times higher than in India, 19 times higher than in Indonesia, and 13 times higher than in Brazil.
During the European heatwave, which peaked around 42°C in cities like London and Paris, urgent public investments were made in cooling infrastructure, with AC ownership doubling in Europe since 1990. The International Energy Agency (IEA) projects a four-fold increase in AC adoption in Europe by 2050.
While several major cities in the global South routinely record temperatures above 40°C, the international discourse around their rising cooling demand is widely framed as a mitigation problem—whereas in the North, it is justified as a necessary adaptation measure. This highlights a troubling hypocrisy.
## The Imperative of Cooling
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that between 2000 and 2019, heat exposure contributed to approximately 489,000 global deaths, with India alone recording more than 20,000 heat-related deaths during this period.
Extreme heat is increasingly recognized as one of the major health threats in the global South. However, mortality and morbidity rates reflect not only rising temperatures but also the acute shortage of protective infrastructure such as thermally secured housing, reliable electricity supply, and adequately equipped public health systems.
In 2022, the majority of healthcare facilities in high-income countries had a reliable power supply, whereas nearly one billion people in lower-middle- and low-income countries were served by facilities with unreliable or no power supply. In South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), 12% and 15% of health centers, respectively, had no electricity, and only 50% of hospitals in SSA reported having reliable power.
Without adequate energy infrastructure, providing essential services such as neonatal care, climate-controlled emergency rooms, and vaccine refrigeration becomes precarious because these rely on stable cooling systems.
During periods of extreme heat, countries like Kenya, Ghana, and Burkina Faso have recorded sharp spikes in cardiovascular, respiratory, and renal conditions—ailments that cannot be treated safely in overheated and underpowered facilities.
Beyond hospitals, lack of cooling access also undermines workplace safety and labor productivity. The International Labour Organization (ILO) suggests that in 2020, over 70% of the global workforce was exposed to excessive heat, resulting in 23 million occupational injuries and nearly 19,000 deaths.
These impacts were felt disproportionately in poorer countries of Africa, South Asia, and the Arab States, where informal employment dominates and workers often lack health insurance and access to ventilated and cooled workspaces.
In India, almost 80% of the labor force is engaged in sectors such as agriculture, construction, and street vending—jobs that require strenuous outdoor work.
Recognizing this vulnerability, several Indian states and cities have developed Heat Action Plans (HAPs) that include early warning systems, information sharing, heat shelters, and public awareness campaigns. However, implementation is often constrained by underfunding, limited institutional coordination, and weak legal frameworks.
As a result, millions of workers continue to face heightened risks of heat-related illnesses and income loss.
Addressing these intersecting challenges in the global South requires integrating heat resilience as a core development priority through policies that focus on stronger labor protection, targeted social safety nets, and comprehensive heat action plans.
## Climate Justice Over Efficiency
Developed countries have long ensured robust heating systems, supported by decades of unchecked emissions and generous public subsidies. Today, developing countries face a similar need for cooling but under much harsher conditions: limited financial resources, crippling energy poverty, and mounting international pressure to decarbonize.
In 2022, global carbon emissions from cooling stood at around one billion tonnes per year—still four times lower than heating-related emissions, which are mostly concentrated in the North. However, global cooling demand is projected to triple by 2050, with India alone expected to see an eightfold increase from 2020 levels.
In a carbon-constrained world, efficient and sustainable cooling solutions are instrumental. Yet, the rhetoric of efficiency often ignores the fact that such interventions require significant upfront capital, technological access, and institutional support.
As low-income nations already face staggering challenges due to economic and energy poverty, without large-scale investments in public infrastructure and access to finance from developed countries, cooling will remain unaffordable for billions in the global South.
Closing this gap is crucial to prevent avoidable deaths, protect livelihoods, and build climate-resilient public systems.
Therefore, cooling must not be treated as a climate liability to be rationed but as a non-negotiable development right essential for strengthening equity and enabling adaptation.
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/the-right-to-be-cool-in-a-sweltering-south/article70093081.ece
