Our Earth is becoming warmer with each passing year. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC’s) latest report alerts that surface temperatures are likely to rise by 1.5°C by the year 2050. Global warming could put about 75 percent of the world’s population at risk of potentially deadly heat exposure for more than 20 days per year by 2100, and negatively impact living conditions for many in hot and humid areas. The need for cooling is fast becoming a necessity for well-being and productivity and, in extreme cases, for survival. As temperatures increase, so does our dependence on air conditioners for thermal comfort, and the resulting emissions from these energy-intensive units, which use potent greenhouse gases as refrigerants, causes further warming, creating a vicious cycle.

Recognizing the urgent need for efficient cooling without warming the planet, Rocky Mountain Institute released its latest report, Solving the Global Cooling Challenge: How to Counter the Climate Threat from Room Air Conditioners, at the Global Cooling Innovation Summit in New Delhi, India, today. The Global Cooling Prize—an innovation challenge intended to incentivize and reward the development of a residential cooling solution that has at least five times less climate impact—was also launched at the summit, by Dr. Harsh Vardhan, the Honorable Union Minister of Science & Technology, Earth Sciences, Environment, Forest, and Climate Change of India, and other dignitaries from around the world.

The report brings to light the need for a breakthrough cooling solution across the world—and particularly in developing countries with hot and humid climates—in order to neutralize the significant economic and environmental impacts that air-conditioning growth portends. The analysis presented in the report shows that rapid scaling and adoption of a residential cooling solution that has five times less climate impact (a 5X solution) would prevent up to 100 gigatons of CO2-equivalent emissions by 2050 and help mitigate up to 0.5°C in global warming by the end of the century.