Mortality-cooling trap

The idea that there are people dying in Pakistan because they lack access to air-conditioning seems like a convoluted, tone-deaf take by a climate-denier - but it is a reality that we will soon be forced to face. According to a recent study by the Climate Impact Lab, Pakistan is among 18 identified countries who are part of a 'mortality-cooling trap'. This means that the effects of climate change are further intensified for these countries due to their widespread fiscal inequality.

Like all natural disasters, climate change also has a tendency to discriminate. It is racist, it is sexist and it disproportionately impacts the poor. When the condition of the world is so devastated that a normal, healthy lifestyle can only be afforded through special equipment, in special neighbourhoods and with special perks, the majority of people are excluded from the luxury of an ordinary life. When air-conditioning becomes a necessity rather than a luxury to handle summer temperatures, people die disproportionately - over 150,000 people a year by 2050 to be specific.

The global picture is equally bleak. Climate-driven warming could push extra deaths worldwide to roughly 430,000 a year by 2050. But Pakistan is one of the starkest cases of this 'mortality-cooling trap'. Nearly 89 per cent of the country's population could end up living in regions affected by this trap. Nine of Pakistan's largest cities are expected to struggle with heat adaptation strategies that mostly rely on electricity infrastructure that most cannot afford.

Therefore, it is true that this story is about air-conditioning, just not in a world where an AC is a luxury. It is also a story about reliable electricity, disposable income, affordable housing that can support the load and a state willing to treat cooling as a right rather than a reward for wealth.