Countries across Asia have recently experienced record high temperatures resulting in dozens of deaths and thousands of hospital admissions for heat-related illnesses.

In Japan, the meteorological agency described temperatures of more than 40 degrees as a "disaster." Demand for power to run air conditioners caused power outages in South Korea, forcing the government to restart mothballed nuclear plants to keep the population cool.

As bad as this has been for the region's advanced economies, the consequences are much more serious for the hundreds of millions in developing Asia without access to power or cooling of any kind.

Millions are at risk from vaccines damaged and food spoiled due to a lack of cooling. Farm incomes suffer from the absence of refrigerated storage facilities and transport. But the problem of cooling has surprisingly received little global attention, even within the development community.

Asia is at the center of the cooling crisis. The region has five of the nine countries in the world that are viewed as most at risk from a lack of cooling access due to their large populations -- India, China, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Indonesia. Collectively, these countries include hundreds of millions of poor, mostly rural, residents in areas subject to heat extremes. The same countries also have millions of slum dwellers with no or limited access to electricity.

India may be the country facing the gravest problems, with large swathes of its rural and urban population -- at least 10% -- suffering from the effects of a lack of access to cooling. Although India is the world's third largest pharmaceutical producer, it is plagued by inadequate cold delivery logistics. Nearly 20% of temperature-sensitive health care products in India, including a quarter of vaccines, arrive damaged or degraded because of broken or insufficient cold chains. Thousands of people die each year from vaccine-preventable diseases.

Since only 4% of fresh produce in India is transported in refrigerated vehicles, many crops fail to reach markets and result in economic losses of $4.5 billion annually for farmers.

Teeming cities in South Asia represent a potential death trap for those with no electricity to power even fans as temperatures climb, as was seen in May when 65 people died in three days in Karachi.

Similar problems of spoilt food and medicines due to a lack of cooling are also noted in China, where the rapid growth of cities in the humid south of the country is creating "heat islands" that limit economic activity and threaten residents with heat-related health problems.

Assisting these countries to provide access to cooling will be critical for meeting the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals of promoting health, ending hunger, and creating sustainable cities by 2030.

But this challenge must be addressed without making the problem worse by adding millions of power-hungry air conditioners. In many parts of Asia, power demand for air conditioning already represents more than half the system peak demand and is rapidly growing. For example, cooling, much of it from inefficient room air conditioners, accounts for about 40% of the power used in Mumbai.

An estimated 2.3 billion people of the growing global middle class, including many in Asia, are likely to only to be able to afford cheaper and probably less efficient air conditioners, which would spike energy demand and accelerate global warming.

Barring changes in building and urban design, growing air conditioning use by city dwellers globally is forecast to rise more than 33-fold globally by 2100. Room air conditioner ownership in India, for example, is expected to increase from around 5 million units to 200 million by 2030. This would make it impossible to stay within the goal of the Paris Climate Agreement to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius.

We face the prospect of a vicious cycle where a warming planet creates the need for more cooling that results in more global warming. Cooling demand is estimated to already account for about 10% of global warming and its share is rapidly increasing. In coming decades power for cooling globally will exceed that for heating.

There is no single or simple solution to the cooling access challenge. It is rather a battle to be fought on many fronts by creating affordable cooling technology to protect medicines and reduce food waste, while producing environmentally friendly air conditioners.

Some short-term measures can make a difference. "Cool roof" programs in which roof tops are painted white or other light colors have been shown to reduce internal temperatures by 20%. The planting of trees and other vegetation, including on "green roofs," can also reduce urban temperatures and is gaining popularity. In Ahmedabad and other rapidly growing Indian cities, green roofs are being installed on government, apartment and office blocks.

Asia has a major role in achieving cooling in a responsible manner. China, South Korea and Japan are among the world's leading producers of air conditioners and refrigerators. Some of the devices they produce are energy efficient, others are not.

Governments can help push manufacturers in the right direction. A recent competitive bulk procurement for efficient air conditioning equipment in India was split between a Japanese company, Panasonic, and an Indian company, Godrej, to encourage industrial cooperation on energy efficiency.

The UN-backed Green Climate Fund, based in South Korea, can help fund climate-friendly policies, technical assistance to manufacturers and distributors, and consumer financing.

Industry cooperation was already a major factor in the success of the Montreal Protocol, the international agreement that led to the elimination of ozone-depleting refrigerants.

This approach must be coordinated with ways to dramatically improve the energy efficiency of air conditioners. Developing countries will need financial assistance to facilitate this change as rapidly as possible. Every year of delay means the sale of millions of units that will be in use for at least the next decade.

Access to cooling should not just be seen simply as an issue of comfort, but a matter of life and death for millions of people in Asia.

Alan Miller, a former climate change policy specialist at the World Bank, is co-author of "Chilling Prospects: Providing Sustainable Cooling for All," which was recently issued by the U.N.-affiliated Sustainable Energy for All.

A warming Asia needs to chill

Read Next

Cruel summer for Southeast Asia's beaches as tourists retreat

Asian economies feel the heat from extreme weather

Latest on Opinion

An investor cheat sheet for Indonesia's Danantara sovereign wealth fund

Japan's LDP has an identity crisis

How Pakistan's David stunned India's Goliath

Sponsored Content

About Sponsored ContentThis content was commissioned by Nikkei's Global Business Bureau.