The present and future of sustainable cooling in Delhi

As I sit in my air-conditioned room writing this, I calculate the carbon emissions from the air conditioner in my household to understand how much heat I am releasing for people working outdoors in my surroundings.

In June, my single AC unit consumed approximately 250 kWh. Given that the average carbon intensity for electricity generation in India is 0.82 kilograms of CO2 per kilowatt-hour, this translates to around 205 kilograms of CO2 emissions in one month.

If my household's emissions are taken as an average for AC-using households in Delhi, we can try to estimate the city's total carbon emissions from air conditioning in June. According to the Multiple Indicator Survey (2020-2021), 32% of Delhi's 35,46,200 households have access to air conditioners, amounting to 11,34,784 households.

Calculating the carbon emissions from these AC-owning households using my household’s emissions as the average, gives a staggering 23,26,30,720 kilograms of CO2 emissions. Around 232 million CO2 emissions might have been released in one of the hottest months of the year. This estimation has its limitations, including dated data and the variability in energy consumption among households, so it should be taken as an approximation. But what do these numbers really mean? To find out, I consulted experts who specialise in this area.

Abinash Mohanty, sector head of Climate Change and Sustainability at IPE Global, said: “The calculation that you have suggested is a blanket calculation, which is very specific. It does have some merit but we have to look at limitations as well. There are a lot of factors to consider for energy consumption—we have to look at the energy efficiency of the AC, whether it has been serviced or not, and the terms of usage and accessibility. But the real question is are we going to build a society full of ACs where we beat the heat but also contribute to the larger heat? These are very fundamental questions we need to ask while India is aspiring to become a five trillion economy.”

Abhiyant Tiwari, the lead at Climate Resilience and Health at NRDC India, said that ACs contribute a lot to the urban heat island effect. “The temperatures are higher in urban areas because of the massive use of concrete and glass surfaces and larger energy consumption,” Tiwari said.

A report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that by 2050, India will have more than 1bn ACs in operation. Vaibhav Chaturvedi, a senior fellow at the CEEW explained the implications of that number.

“The biggest implication of such numbers is the increase in electricity load, and especially in urban areas, it is clearly driven by air conditioning in a significant way. There are big challenges in terms of management of electricity, forecasting electricity demand, which is rising year on year as the temperature is also rising.”

He emphasised: “There has to be some better way for cooling and nobody would disagree with that but what is the better way? That is the important question. Currently, we have tech innovation that provides a similar level of cooling with much lesser electricity demand but they have to be affordable.”

“ACs are anyway very expensive for the common people. So, you might have these super-efficient ACs which are great from the electricity conservation point of view but if a super-efficient AC price is double of that of the current ACs, then very few people will buy these,” Chaturvedi said.

Looking at possible solutions, Mohanty talked about sustainable cooling mechanisms. “Experiments are going on in terms of having ACs powered by solar energy. Forest and plants are going to be very critical in terms of limiting the temperature rise.”

One simple yet effective action we can all take is to set our ACs to 24-26° Celsius, significantly reducing both energy consumption and emissions.

Three of the experts also stated that the city’s architecture and urban planning have to be better and will play a game-changing role if the real estate sector considers environment-friendly practices. “For example, many of our buildings are glass buildings because they look nice to some people but they are like terrible designs for our ecosystem and lead to an increase in temperature”, Chaturvedi suggested.

We live in a world rife with inequalities, and adding to it is the division between those who have ACs and those who do not. Those who own and use ACs should use the machines mindfully so that we minimise the harm we cause to others and ourselves while cooling us.