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he United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) warned on Tuesday that surging global demand for air conditioning and refrigeration could more than triple by 2050, driving a steep rise in energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions unless countries adopt sustainable cooling measures.

According to UNEP’s Global Cooling Watch Report 2025, cooling currently accounts for an estimated 4.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e) annually — about 7% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Two-thirds of that figure stems from the electricity needed to power cooling systems, while the rest comes from refrigerant leaks.

If current trends continue, UNEP projects emissions could reach 7.2 billion tons CO₂e by mid-century under a “business-as-usual” pathway. However, a shift toward a “sustainable cooling pathway” could slash emissions by as much as 97%, bringing them close to net zero by 2050 while saving trillions of dollars in energy and infrastructure costs.

“Cooling is both a lifeline and a major climate challenge,” the report states. “It protects people from extreme heat, preserves food and medicine, and underpins productivity — yet it is also a growing source of energy demand and emissions.”

A growing crisis in a warming world

The report emphasizes that the world cannot simply “air condition its way out” of rising temperatures. Global population growth, rapid urbanization, and more frequent extreme heat events are expected to dramatically increase the need for cooling — particularly in low- and middle-income countries in Africa and South and Central Asia.

Without intervention, the global stock of cooling equipment — including air conditioners, refrigerators, and cold storage — could expand from 22 terawatts (TW) in 2022 to 68 TW in 2050. The steepest increases are expected in developing countries, where access to cooling remains limited but temperatures are rising fastest.

At the same time, even high-income regions such as Europe will face sharp growth in cooling demand as extreme heatwaves become more frequent, UNEP warned.

A pathway to sustainable cooling

UNEP’s Sustainable Cooling Pathway proposes a four-step hierarchy: reducing cooling loads through passive building design, using low-energy cooling methods like fans and evaporative systems, maximizing efficiency in cooling technologies, and rapidly phasing down hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants, which have high global warming potential.

Adopting these measures could reduce the projected 2050 cooling capacity by 41%, from 68 TW to 40 TW. That would cut emissions by 64% compared to business as usual, while saving an estimated US$17 trillion in electricity and grid investment costs between 2025 and 2050.

“Practical and integrated solutions already exist to deliver sustainable, equitable and climate-aligned cooling for all,” UNEP said. “Scaling these measures can deliver deep cuts in emissions, strengthen resilience to extreme heat and unlock trillions of dollars in avoided energy and infrastructure costs.”

The report also calls for passive cooling strategies such as cool roofs, green spaces, and natural ventilation, which can lower indoor temperatures by up to 7°C and reduce energy use by nearly 30%.

Policy progress and gaps

UNEP’s analysis of 192 countries shows growing recognition of cooling as a climate issue but highlights significant policy gaps.

So far, 134 countries have incorporated cooling measures into their national climate plans, and 29 have set specific emission reduction targets for the cooling sector. However, only 54 countries have policies covering all three pillars of sustainable cooling — passive building design, efficiency standards, and refrigerant transition.

The report warns that many developing nations still lack building energy codes or regulations mandating efficient cooling technologies. “Critical implementation gaps remain,” UNEP notes, “particularly in regions where regulatory frameworks lag urgent cooling needs.”

Even as air conditioner sales grow, nearly three billion people are projected to remain without adequate access to cooling by 2050 — a gap that will disproportionately affect women and low-income communities.

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he climate crisis has become a new reality the world can no longer ignore. For many, change is necessary. Aaron Saad draws attention to the simple slogan “System change, not climate change” often seen at climate marches. The nature and scope of change remains a persisting dispute, which often becomes an obstacle to finding a viable solution and taking action. Ideologies, or in other words, our perception of right and wrong, and consequently how the future should be shaped, have a profound effect on the kind of solutions we choose to impose.

In Worlds at Stake: Climate Politics, Ideology, and Justice, Saad intents to show readers the range of options on climate responses, familiarize readers with the landscape of climate politics necessary for critical evaluation of climate policies, and ignite the readers’ potential energy to contribute to collective political power by helping them find their place in the climate struggle.

Saad takes the reader on a critical journey by using an exploratory approach on differing ideologies and climate justice. By laying out the limits and reaches of each ideology comparatively, the book aids the reader in imagining the realities that the corresponding ideologies may lead to. Saad believes it is not enough to solve the climate problem with a certain response, but that we should also be choosing a response that in the process creates a desirable world.

The essential groundwork is laid in the first part of the book, where the author delves into the concepts of ideology and climate justice. Saad highlights the major role that ideology plays in climate politics, and provides an understanding of what ideologies are and how they work. The following two parts are split into categories of system-preserving and system-changing frameworks respectively, offering an insight into answering the question of whether it is an entire system change that is necessary.

Could the existing dynamics in the system be utilized, tweaked, and refined to serve a better future? The second part of the book consists of the chapters “Neoliberalism and the World-Saving Market,” which discusses using the market forces of capitalism in bringing about change, and “Right-Wing Ideology and Climate Change Denialism”, and “Geoengineering,” which addresses using technology on a large scale to control the Earth’s natural systems.

Or, is it time for more radical changes that shake the system to the core? In the third part of the book, Saad discusses “Social Democracy and a Green New Deal, “Degrowth,” which is about the abandonment of a growth-centered economy to preserve ecosystems from human pressures, and “Ecosocialism,” or dismantling capitalism and designing an egalitarian society based on human needs, harmonized with ecology.

In the final part, Saad focuses on the climate movement, its recent tactics, and how they might change the world. Ultimately, Saad addresses incorporating ways of taking action into the discussion. Worlds at Stake offers a unique perspective and comes as a breath of fresh air to those who grasp the urgency of climate action but may feel unfamiliar with the topic or don’t quite know where they stand yet.

Aaron Saad, Worlds at Stake: Climate Politics, Ideology, and Justice (Fernwood Publishing, 2022) ISBN: 9781773635644, 192 pages

According to a report recently released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is a United Nations body tasked with assessing science-based observations on climate change, human activity is rapidly changing the climate in remarkable ways, thus confirming the debates around the Anthropocene.

The report is the first major review of climate change since 2013 outlining data on the change and how it will affect people all over the world, and mostly those living in cities. The climate change crisis has already arrived. Now the question is: how bad is the situation today and is it too late to prevent it?

A total of 234 authors from over 66 countries who are members of UN working groups claim that it is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean, and land.

The report comes at a time, when the Paris Agreement’s objectives on the global level will be assessed, including the goal to reduce global warming below 2°C while continuing efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C.

The IPCC report also provides information for the review of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by UN member states for 2030.

Changes

The IPCC scientists warn that we will exceed 2°C warming in the coming decades, heat waves will increase, and shorter cold seasons and longer warm seasons will be the norm. The observed evidence for extreme changes includes increased frequency and intensity of extreme heat, oceanic heat waves, heavy rainfall, droughts affecting agriculture, intense tropical cyclones, and reductions in Arctic Sea ice. All the above, according to the report, are effects of human influence.

A future scenario

By 2050, according to all scenarios, global warming will increase and exceed 1.5°C. If carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions are not significantly reduced in the coming decades, global warming will reach over 2°C at some point in the 21st century. The consequences of this scenario would be detrimental changes in the climate system, including an increase in the frequency and intensity of heat waves, heavy precipitation, drought, and the melting of the Arctic ice pack, snow cover and permafrost as well as changes in the hydrological cycle (variability between years or intensity of extreme events such as droughts or floods).

How can we limit climate change?

Is there a way to limit the climate change which the entire world is already experiencing? Many of the effects of current climate changes are irreversible for hundreds or thousands of years, especially regarding oceans, ice sheets, and sea levels.

According to the report, to confine global warning to a certain level, at least CO₂ emissions and other greenhouse gas emissions must be significantly reduced. In particular, a rapid and sustained reduction in methane (CH₄) emissions would offset the warming associated with aerosol-producing air pollutants and improve air quality.