{"id":65197,"date":"2025-09-26T11:20:20","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T05:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=65197"},"modified":"2025-09-26T11:20:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T05:50:20","slug":"right-to-cooling-global-south","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/right-to-cooling-global-south\/","title":{"rendered":"Right to Cooling in the Global South &#8211; Explained"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Right to Cooling Latest News<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government\u2019s proposal to regulate air conditioner efficiency has reignited debate on the <\/span><b>Right to Cooling<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as a public health and climate justice imperative in India and the Global South.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Introduction<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The intensifying heatwaves across the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/global-south\/\" target=\"_blank\"><b>Global South<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, including India, have turned cooling into an essential public health safeguard rather than a luxury.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In June 2025, the Government of India proposed regulations requiring all new air conditioners to function within a temperature range of 20\u00b0C to 28\u00b0C, with 24\u00b0C as the default setting.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/bureau-of-energy-efficiency\/\" target=\"_blank\"><b>Bureau of Energy Efficiency<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (BEE) projects that such a move could save 20 billion units of electricity annually and cut emissions by 16 million tonnes, the debate extends far beyond efficiency.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It raises urgent questions of equity, climate justice, and the universal right to cooling.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Access to Cooling in India and the Global South<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cooling access in India remains severely inadequate. In 2021, only 13% of urban households and 1% of rural households owned air conditioners, with overall national penetration at around 5%.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The disparity is stark: Delhi reports 32% household ownership, while low-income states such as Bihar and Odisha report just 1%, despite recording extreme heat conditions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Globally, the contrast is sharper. Nearly 90% of households in the U.S. and Japan own an air conditioner, compared to 22% in Latin America and just 6% in Sub-Saharan Africa.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Per capita electricity consumption for cooling in the U.S. is 28 times higher than in India.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite these inequities, the discourse on cooling in the South is often framed as a climate burden, while in the North it is justified as a health necessity.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Health and Productivity Implications<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Extreme heat is no longer just a climate phenomenon but a direct public health hazard.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to the <\/span><b>World Health Organisation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (WHO), heat exposure caused 489,000 global deaths between 2000 and 2019, with India recording over 20,000.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The lack of reliable electricity, inadequate thermally secure housing, and under-equipped public health infrastructure amplify vulnerabilities.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>International Labour Organisation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (ILO) estimates that over 70% of the global workforce was exposed to excessive heat in 2020, causing 23 million occupational injuries and nearly 19,000 deaths.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In India, where 80% of workers are in agriculture, construction, or street vending, the absence of heat-resilient workspaces threatens both health and livelihoods.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Policy Interventions and Heat Action Plans<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Several Indian states and cities have initiated <\/span><b>heat action plans<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, including early warning systems, public shelters, and awareness drives.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, weak institutional capacity, limited funding, and poor legal backing have restricted their effectiveness. Millions remain vulnerable to heat-related illnesses, productivity losses, and income insecurity.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government\u2019s regulatory approach to air conditioner efficiency is commendable for energy savings, but risks being symbolic if not paired with stronger investments in affordable cooling access for the vulnerable.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Climate Justice and the Right to Cooling<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Developed countries historically invested heavily in heating systems, often backed by subsidies and unchecked emissions.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today, developing nations like India face a similar need for cooling but with fewer resources and under mounting international pressure to decarbonise.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Global emissions from cooling stand at one billion tonnes annually, far lower than heating-related emissions, yet the cooling demand is projected to triple by 2050, with India\u2019s share growing eightfold.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For the Global South, the challenge is twofold: <\/span><b>achieving efficient cooling<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> while <\/span><b>ensuring universal access<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thus, cooling must be recognised not merely as a <\/span><b>mitigation liability<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> but as a <\/span><b>development right<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> tied to health, equity, and livelihood security.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bridging the gap requires financial and technological support from developed nations, large-scale public investment, and integration of cooling into climate adaptation strategies.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Source:<\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/energy-and-environment\/the-right-to-be-cool-in-a-sweltering-south\/article70093081.ece#:~:text=Access%20to%20air%20conditioning%20is,but%20a%20frontline%20adaptation%20need\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">TH<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>India\u2019s debate on energy efficiency highlights that the right to cooling is no longer a luxury but a public health need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":65208,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[60,2904,22,59],"class_list":{"0":"post-65197","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"tag-mains-articles","9":"tag-right-to-cooling","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-mains-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}