Governments must stop treating cooling as a choice between the climate and human health. Instead, they should treat thermal comfort as a public service, much like clean water. To avoid taxing the poor, policy should shift away from simple electricity price hikes. High costs often force low-income families to choose between food and a fan, creating a dangerous cycle of heat exposure.
A smarter path involves upgrading building standards through direct subsidies rather than just imposing penalties. Retrofitting old apartment blocks with better insulation and natural ventilation reduces the need for heavy air conditioning altogether. When people don't need to run AC at maximum capacity to stay safe, the grid stays stable and emissions drop.
Furthermore, urban planning plays a decisive role. Planting more trees and using reflective roofing materials in densely populated, lower-income neighborhoods lowers local temperatures. This
