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Every summer when I was growing up, I would fly from my home in Canada to visit my grandparents, who lived in Mumbai, India. Now, Canadian summers are pretty mild at best -- about 22 degrees Celsius or 72 degrees Fahrenheit is a typical summer's day, and not too hot. Mumbai, on the other hand, is a hot and humid place well into the 30s Celsius or 90s Fahrenheit. As soon as I'd reach it, I'd ask, "How could anyone live, work or sleep in such weather?" To make things worse, my grandparents didn't have an air conditioner. And while I tried my very, very best, I was never able to persuade them to get one. But this is changing, and fast.
Cooling systems today collectively account for 17 percent of the electricity we use worldwide. This includes everything from the air conditioners I so desperately wanted during my summer vacations, to the refrigeration systems that keep our food safe and cold for us in our supermarkets, to the industrial scale systems that keep our data centers operational. Collectively, these systems account for eight percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.