Why government needs to set our AC temperature for us
The fourth largest carbon emitter on the planet, India faces an uphill task if it has to meet the commitments it made at the Paris Agreement on climate change last year.
Under the agreement, the country has promised to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 33 to 35 per cent by 2030 as compared to the levels in 2005. But, for one of the hottest and most humid countries in the world, one that is increasingly finding itself dependent on Air Conditioners (AC) – one of the major contributors to the growing problem of carbon emissions – achieving such targets, for now at least, appears to be a distant dream.
The AC conundrum
The rise in incomes coinciding with rising temperatures are seeing ACs transition from the realm of 'luxury' to necessity. Even though only about 5 per cent homes in the country currently use air conditioning, this number is expected to rapidly grow with experts estimating double-digit growth in the next few years and as a result, the addition of hundreds of millions of new ACs to the already complex equation by 2030.
Despite urgently needing to cut down on the release of pollutants in the atmosphere, all projections thus only suggest a rise in India's greenhouse gas emissions bill.
So, what do lawmakers do when faced with such a conundrum? Cook up new laws.
Setting the temperature straight
The government is currently considering a recommendation by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) to introduce a new standard that aims to set the default temperature on ACs at 24 degrees Celsius.
Now, before the outrage machine burns this article to the ground, let's make one thing clear. Even if passed, the proposal will not give the government sweeping powers to decide how cool our rooms can be.
As India's minister of state for power, RK Singh, has clarified, "A default setting means that when you start the air conditioner, it will start at 24 degree Celsius setting, however, you can change the setting to whatever temperature you want."
Saving the environment – and us
The reason behind this move appears to be an attempt to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As the minister himself clarified in a series of tweets, the move could help India save billions of units of electricity every year as well as reduce emissions of greenhouse gasses substantially.
2. Every degree by which you increase the temperature setting saves 6% of energy. A minimum temperature setting of 24 Degrees will result in a saving of 18% of energy as compared to a minimum setting of 21 Degrees at the present level of the population of Air Conditioners (1/2)
— Office of R.K. Singh (@OfficeOfRKSingh) June 25, 2018
This means, saving of 20 Billion Units - equivalent to 1.72 Million Tonnes of oil equivalent every year. This will reduce the greenhouse gases by 16.2 Million Tonnes of CO2. (2/2)
— Office of R.K. Singh (@OfficeOfRKSingh) June 25, 2018
Clarifying his stance, the minister further explained, "Normal human body temperature is approximately 36-37 degree Celsius, but large numbers of commercial establishments, hotels and offices maintain temperature around 18-21 degree Celsius. This is not only uncomfortable but is actually unhealthy."
Need for outrage
Despite appearing to be a rather novel idea, the proposal has been met with much outrage. Many users, including politicians and journalists, have taken to Twitter to slam the government over its plans to "control our ACs".
Your govt now wants to control the temperature of your ACs and homes....!!! What a ridiculous proposal this ???? @PiyushGoyal pic.twitter.com/wQPmgBJKGD
— Manak Gupta (@manakgupta) June 24, 2018
Since now #BJP Govt has passed orders dictating on what temp AC should run watch out for “AC Rakshaks” “AC Vigilantism” & yes your love for Nation will b judged & Nationalism certificate has new criteria “24 degree AC” otherwise go to Pakistan
— Jaiveer Shergill (@JaiveerShergill) June 24, 2018
Why should the state tell us the temperature at which to set our ACs? Next you’ll tell us how much rice we can eat, how much water we can drink. Nanny state 101 https://t.co/HavpHMHlYY
— Nidhi Razdan (@Nidhi) June 24, 2018
Although we do not agree with the reasons for outrage in the above tweets, we still have our grievances with the government's decision.
As opposed to many who think the government should not be meddling with our ACs and setting temperatures for us, our belief is that it should.
The sad reality is that concrete steps need to be taken now, to get the menace of rising greenhouse emission under control. While the proposal is a step in the right direction, the reality is, it's not even close to what's needed.
Air conditioning, as it stands, is a double-edged sword that is causing a considerable amount of damage to the atmosphere. While ACs not only pump out greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, they also fill our neighbourhoods with extra heat generated while trying to cool our rooms. The extra heat makes cities hotter, thus forcing people to turn up their air conditioning even higher.
This vicious circle, though seemingly harmless for the ones stuck in it, only makes matters worse for those who are not privileged enough to be part of this circle.
Additionally, ACs also use a lot of energy created by the burning of harmful fossil fuels that again add to the CO2 emissions in the atmosphere.
As such, the Modi government, which came to power on the back of its promise to take difficult decisions, and showed its resolve to do so during the experiments that demonetisation and GST were, should now bite the bullet and stand up for the environment by forcing all manufacturers to create AC units that do not allow users to bring a room's temperature down below an acceptable level.
Further, instead of encouraging managers of commercial spaces such as offices, malls and restaurants to use their air conditioning units wisely, the government should enforce laws that ban ACs from being run at really low temperatures.
Similar steps have previously been taken in countries like Japan, and have yielded great results. The country, back in 2005, started a policy called Cool Biz that mandated offices and malls to set the temperature of their air conditioning units to not go below 28 degree Celsius.
As per a report published in Quartz, the most recent estimates suggest the program prevented 1.69 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions in 2010, and reduced emissions by 7.92 million tons in the previous five years.
Granted, taking such steps may be met with extreme opposition, and even ridicule – but where we currently stand, this appears to be the only logical step forward.