India’s Kerala state issued a warning to workers last month about heat-related illnesses with an early summer onset. As the weeks extend into the warmer months across the northern hemisphere, the need for air-conditioning will be felt strongly in most Asia-Pacific countries, with large pockets having minimal access to cooling facilities. Heat waves will likely become more prolonged, intense, and frequent. The northern summer of 2025 is predicted to be hotter if not the same as the high temperatures experienced last year.
This does not bode well for Asia-Pacific’s developing economies from South and Southeast Asia. More health-related challenges and lower productivity in their populations could be expected due to extreme heat, normally exceeding 40 degrees Celsius every year.
A regional effort towards adoption of innovative cooling solutions could save numerous lives and livelihoods.
Heat is trapped in dense concrete buildings with glass and steel.
In 2024, the Philippines, Cambodia, and Bangladesh shut down schools due to dangerous heat waves and lack of air-conditioning in school premises. The need for energy exerted peak loads on power grids and citizens were warned to be aware of heat shock and heat-related illnesses, while fires due to hot and dry weather increased in Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia. Similarly in India, excessive heat raised the mortality risk in large urban areas such as Delhi and Mumbai.
Even the more developed East Asian economies are struggling. Record power consumption for cooling was needed in China’s Shanghai and Hangzhou. Rising temperatures are negatively affecting rice yield, quality and pattern in parts of Japan, while South Korea is contemplating legislation for classifying increased heat as a disaster in order to provide relief to its workers.
The urban heat island effect, where heat is trapped in dense concrete buildings with glass and steel, has led to a highly vulnerable situation in the region’s largest urban areas, which are also economically the most productive. Rising heat is expected to cause direct annual global economic losses of at least US$2.4 trillion by 2050.
A man sits in a balcony amid air conditioning units installed on the facade of a building in New Delhi (Sajjad Hussain/AFP via Getty Images)
Air conditioning is often a luxury item (Sajjad Hussain/AFP via Getty Images)
The impact of increased heat is more pronounced on vulnerable populations such as senior citizens, people with morbidities, and children. Physiology also leaves women more vulnerable, with several implications including reproductive health. The impact of chronic heat exposure on healthy individuals leads to dehydration, exhaustion, and reduced working capacity. Occupations such as construction, industrial manufacturing, farming, and animal husbandry remain particularly high risk. A spike in cases of anxiety and depression with soaring temperatures indicates the serious repercussions on mental health.
Access to cooling in Asia-Pacific is highly uneven, with densely populated India having a low rate of eight per cent until a few years back. High growth in conventional cooling, such as predicted sales of 12 million air-conditioners in India in early 2025, pushes carbon emissions targets further out with a proportional increase in power consumption. China, India and Indonesia alone are projected to account for half of the global demand for air-conditioning by 2050. Innovative eco-friendly solutions are required to expand cooling access without irreversible environmental harm.
Apart from a few domestic action plans, Asia-Pacific countries have not been able to foster a regional response to this recurring crisis of excessive heat.
A transition to heat-reflecting building materials, better regulatory mechanisms, and climate-sensitive approval systems can be useful. Training for healthcare providers will improve diagnosis of heat-related illnesses, while knowledge-sharing campaigns for vulnerable groups will build universal resilience. Deployment of smart technologies such as heat alert systems can issue advance updates and provide time for preparation to response teams.
District cooling technology, a tested method widely used in Europe, seems promising as it sustainably uses water to provide central air-conditioning and ensures power savings of at least 40 per cent. Many Asian cities are using this technology to varying degrees but a dedicated regional plan for its large-scale viability, offsetting initial capital costs and red tape, can position cooling as a public utility good accessible to all sectors of society. Some progress in this direction is underway with the Global Heat Health Information Network’s (GHHIN) plan to set up a Southeast Asia hub with an objective to coordinate a regional response to excessive heat. A similar hub for South Asia is planned for the future.
Apart from a few domestic action plans, Asia-Pacific countries have not been able to foster a regional response to this recurring crisis of excessive heat. India, Japan and China, despite being the largest economies, have failed to cooperate or lead regional action on specific climate vulnerabilities. The regional group ASEAN has also not taken focused action on this issue.
As the international order becomes more multipolar, regional powers will find themselves in a unique position of significance, albeit with larger responsibility for timely action. They are expected to create platforms that muster collective responses for the most pressing challenges. Given a disproportionate impact of climate change in the Asia-Pacific, a regional strategy for providing relief and building resilience is essential. Even as collaboration with concerned partner countries is indispensable and highly beneficial, it would be prudent to avoid dependence on external partners for leadership and initiative.