It was 117 degrees Fahrenheit (47 C)in Tunisia in July, yet our colleague Manel Ben Khelifa could not turn on the air conditioning “because the electricity grid has been shut down,” she explained.
“The power company is trying to conserve energy during peak periods by doubling electricity prices to discourage people from using air conditioning, but it’s not working,” Ben Khelifa told us during a heat wave in July 2024.
“It’s so hot, people would rather turn off anything but the air conditioning,” she said. “So then the power company turns off the power. It’s OK for young people like me but for my babies and my father, who has health issues, it’s inhumane. It wasn’t like this when I was a girl. It’s getting hotter.”
Extreme heat has gotten worse in many places as the Earth has warmed due to our reliance on fossil fuels. And we can’t just air-condition our way out of the problem, as about 7% of global emissions of heat-trapping pollution come from burning fossil fuels to generate heat and cooling inside buildings. This percentage will only grow without a serious course correction, especially in the developing world, which is rapidly urbanizing.
Poorly designed buildings make the problem worse
In the past five years, more than 80% of building growth and related energy demand has occurred in emerging economies that have limited or no energy performance requirements for buildings.
In 2022 alone, more than 2.4 billion square meters of new buildings, mostly new housing, were constructed without any energy, thermal, or resilience performance requirements. That is equivalent to the entire building stock of Spain being added in one year.
This creates a vicious cycle: Poorly designed buildings produce more climate-warming gases, fueling the climate extremes that further threaten people living in poor housing.
In the Indonesian city of Samarinda, for example, research found that most household energy use was for cooling. Yet poor design meant average indoor temperature and humidity remained about the same as outdoor conditions – above 27°C (80°F) with 70% humidity – even when thermostats were set to 20°C. Lack of shading and natural ventilation coupled with poor insulation means buildings heat up quickly while cool air leaks out.
But simple, cost-effective design elements such as proper insulation, shading, and ventilation can ensure safe indoor temperatures – so long as there’s public and political will to help people access those solutions.
A deadly cycle – rapid urbanization and worsening climate conditions
In India, an apartment air conditioning unit in Gurgaon, New Delhi caught fire recently – not the first time this has happened in summer. Aafsha Kansal, a project coordinator for the Global Buildings Performance Network, lives in the building opposite and said excessive usage was likely the cause. In response, the housing society required residents to place the air-conditioning units in the shade.
So Kansal can no longer use her home office’s outdoor unit, since it is exposed to the sun, and is now working from her dining room table until the summer ends.
One resident of an apartment unit near Kansal’s said her home had become too hot to sit inside.
“Every day we pour water on the floor to cool it, then we sit outside in the late evening fanning ourselves with newspapers while we wait for the floor to cool down,” said the woman, who asked not to be named.
“The other day, I went inside to see if it was cool enough and I was shocked to find a snake coiled on the floor. We tried to make it come out, but it just cornered itself into difficult spots. By the time we got it out and went to bed, it was 3 a.m.”
Smart strategies for transforming buildings
In March 2024, at the first Buildings and Climate Global Summit, 70 countries pledged to ensure that near-zero emissions and resilient buildings are the new normal by 2030. But that won’t happen unless coordinated implementation – across many regulatory bodies, such as those dedicated to urban development, housing, energy, industry, and health – follows commitment.
Better building codes and effective supporting policies can also help. Such codes can set design and construction standards to protect people from future climate conditions.
Although 81 countries have building codes for residential buildings and 77 countries for nonresidential, 30% of these codes have not been updated since 2015 and are not designed for rapidly changing climate conditions.
Regions with hot climates are particularly poorly covered. For example, Africa is the most climate-vulnerable continent, yet it is far from prepared. With a population set to double by 2050, more than 70% of its needed building stock has yet to be built. But only five of the 54 African countries have updated their building regulations in the last decade.
The third crucial step is stakeholder engagement. There are global climate-smart building best practices to draw on, yet policy must be tailored to local contexts and climates. Collaborating with local decision-makers, residents, builders, and experts can help policymakers understand the needs of the community, potential challenges, and available resources.
Private sector participation will be important, too. In India, Design Charrettes provides a focused collaboration among architects, developers and communities to solve design challenges. These charrettes have guided builders to design cost-effective and implementable climate-responsive affordable housing projects that provide occupants with adequate thermal, visual, and physical comfort.
This private sector collaboration led to the creation of guidelines for affordable housing, which are now being discussed by the Bureau of Indian Standards – one of the committees responsible for revising the National Building Code and Indian Standards for Low-Income Housing in Urban Areas. The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has committed to building 30 million new affordable housing units by 2030, so ensuring these are designed and constructed to be resilient to future climates will improve the lives of millions of people for decades.
Bottom line: Low-carbon, healthy buildings will protect human life in a changing climate and halt the emissions that could cause unlivable temperatures.
Peter Graham is the CEO and executive director of GBPN, the Global Buildings Performance Network. Mili Majumdar is the senior vice president for innovation and research for the U.S. Green Building Council in New Delhi, India.
We help millions of people understand climate change and what to do about it. Help us reach even more people like you.