WHY?

Warming Temperatures and Heatwaves

1. Heatwaves have killed more than 24,000 people in India since 1992. (United States Institute of Peace, 2023)
2. The rise in heat wave intensity is expected to cost India 2.8% of GDP by 2050 along with 7% of depressed standard of living by 2100 respectively.(CNN, 2023)
3. Heatwaves in India are likely to last 25 times longer by 2036-2065 because of higher carbon emissions causing global temperature to rise to 4^oC by the end of the century. (Centre for Science and Environment, 2023)
4. India is among the top 5 countries that saw more than 5 heatwaves days in 2023 between October and September. (The Indian Express, 2023)
5. Heatwaves can put 5% of India’s global GDP (Approx USD 150-250 billion) at risk by the end of decade. (McKinsey & Company, Outlook India, 2022)
6. The Heat Index (HI) and Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI) showed that +90% of the population is at dangerous levels of adversely impacting adaptive livelihood capacity, due to rising heatwaves. (Government of India,Mongabay, 2023)
7. In 2021, India had an economic loss of $159 billion and $167 billion hours of potential labor due to extreme heat levels. This is a 39% increase from the 1990s. (Climate Impact Tracker, 2023)
8. Heat-related income losses experienced by women reach as high as 260% compared to 76% loss for men, which results in widening gender inequality. The study also suggested that heat costs India $120 billion each year in losses to women’s paid labor productivity. (UNDRR, 2023)
9. Heatwaves in India will affect +300 million people by 2050 and will reduce the life expectancy of +600 million people by 2100. (University Of Cambridge, 2023)
10. India’s average temperature has increased by 0.62% since 1991 and is predicted to rise by an additional 4% by 2100 due to the rising heat waves. (Climate Impact Tracker, 2023)
11. The mortality rate related to heatwaves in India has increased by 2% in the past 20 years. (Nature Portfolio, 2022)
12. A model predicted by IOP science shows that heatwaves reduced India’s 2022 wheat yield by 4.5%. (IOP Science, 2023)
13. India is likely to be one of the first places in the world where heatwave breaches human survivability threshold as climate change continues to make extreme heat x30 more likely in India. (Deccan Herald, 2023)
14. By 2020 food loss due to heat during transportation was close to $13 billion annually (World Bank, 2022)

Air Quality

1. In 2023, New Delhi was the most polluted capital city in the world with an average particulate matter (PM) 2.5 concentration of 92.7 micrograms per cubic meter of air. The World Health Organization advises that annual mean PM 2.5 concentrations should not exceed 5 micrograms per cubic meter of air (Statista, 2024)
2. The Global Observatory on Pollution and Health at Boston College, the Indian Council of Medical Research, and the Public Health Foundation of India claim that air pollution has accounted for 1.4% of the GDP equivalent to $36.8 billion in economic loss in 2019. (Boston College, 2024)
3. The high burden of death and disease due to air pollution and its associated substantial adverse economic impact from loss of output could impede India’s aspiration to be a $5 trillion economy by 2024. (The Lancent, 2020)
4. 7 million deaths in India were attributable to air pollution in 2019, which was 18% of the total deaths in the country (Indian Council of Medical Research, 2020)

HOW?

Cooling Market

1. The demand for comfort cooling is expected to drive the total stock of room ACs to over 1 billion by 2050 – a x40-fold growth from 2016 level. (RMI, 2018)
2. In 2016, the air conditioner market penetration rate was about 5% and by 2026 it is estimated to reach 12.4%. (Statista, 2023)
3. India is predicted to account for 25% of annual emission globally by 2050 due to unprecedented rise of comfort cooling demand, particularly in residential areas. (World Economic Forum, 2019)
4. The total potential energy savings from Room AC efficiency improvement in India using the best available technology will reach over 118 TWh in 2030; potential peak demand saving is found to be 60 GW by 2030. This is equivalent to avoiding 120 new coal fired power plants of 500 MW each. (OSIT)
5. Air Condition (AC) sales in China rose from 51.5 million units in 2010 to nearly 100 million units in 2020 (Science Direct, 2023)
6. In 2016, the market penetration of room ACs (RACs) in urban Chinese households reached 124%, up from 5% in the mid-1990s (Science Direct, 2020)

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