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In Belém, Brazil, where the Amazon’s humidity hangs heavy and heat shimmers off the river, world leaders gathered for COP30 to confront a fast-rising crisis: how to cool a warming planet and win to beat the heat.

A new UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report, Global Cooling Watch 2025, warns that global demand for cooling, air conditioners, refrigerators, and cold chains is set to triple by 2050. Without intervention, this could nearly double cooling-related emissions, reaching 7.2 billion tons of CO₂ equivalent, as more households and businesses turn to energy-intensive solutions to survive intensifying heat.

Even though the report also offers a hopeful blueprint, one embedded in sustainability. It proposes a Sustainable Cooling Pathway, built on passive design, low-energy, and hybrid cooling technologies, that could cut emissions by 64 percent, saving trillions in energy costs while ensuring access to life-saving cooling for billions, especially across the Global South.

Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP, argues that access to cooling must now be treated as essential infrastructure, just like water, energy, and sanitation. She reflects on the growing threat of deadly heat waves:

“We cannot air condition our way out of the heat crisis. Passive, energy-efficient, and nature-based solutions can help keep people, food chains, and economies safe from heat as we pursue global climate goals.”

Africa’s Cooling Divide: How to Beat The Heat

Nowhere is this challenge more urgent than in Africa, where temperatures are rising faster than the global average, and urban heat islands are intensifying in cities such as Nairobi, Lagos, Accra, and Dar es Salaam. Sprawling concrete, limited green cover, and rapid population growth are turning heat into a silent public health emergency.

Understanding that more than 600 million Africans still lack access to reliable electricity, it’s important to note that traditional cooling is either unaffordable or unavailable for most. But how can millions living without reliable power navigate the growing extremes of heat?

That is why UNEP’s call for a Sustainable Cooling Pathway resonates so deeply in Africa, hence the need for the Beat the Heat anthem to get more traction and understanding. Through prioritizing passive cooling by embracing better building design, reflective materials, shading, and urban trees, countries can protect citizens without overburdening fragile power systems.

As incomes rise and cities expand, cooling demand is expected to surge further. Experts warn of a looming flood of inefficient air conditioners powered by fossil-fuel grids, locking in high emissions and costs for decades.

The report notes that two-thirds of potential emission cuts lie in these low-energy, nature-based measures. If adopted globally, such solutions could save up to US$17 trillion in energy costs and avoid US$26 trillion in new grid investments by 2050, resources that could instead strengthen resilience and social protection.

“For Somalian cities like Dolow, Baidoa, Galkaio, and Bossaso, sustainable cooling is not a luxury, it is a lifeline,” said Lt. Gen. Bashir Mohamed Jama, Somalia’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change.

“By joining Beat the Heat and working with the UNEP-led Cool Coalition, we aim to protect lives and livelihoods from intensifying heat while advancing climate commitments.”

Yet progress remains uneven. While 72 nations have joined the Global Cooling Pledge, only 54 have comprehensive policies covering building codes, appliance standards, and refrigerant transition.

In Africa and the Asia-Pacific, to beat the heat is essential, for it is where future cooling demand will unfold; implementation is slow and underfunded. This highlights the urgent need for a financing strategy that responds to the realities and constraints of developing nations.

Many African countries have already integrated cooling into their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs). Regional bodies such as IGAD and the African Union are also exploring how cooling can support broader climate resilience and public health agendas.

From Belém, one message rings clear: cooling is not a luxury; it is essential to life, health, and productivity. As Global Cooling Watch 2025 emphasizes, the choices made today will determine whether cooling becomes a climate burden or a climate solution.

“We have no excuse,” Andersen reminds the world. “It’s time we beat the heat.”