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Heatwave Swells Asia's Appetite for Air-conditioning

A record-breaking heatwave is broiling parts of Asia, helping drive surging demand for cooling options, including air-conditioning. Yuichi YAMAZAKI / AFP
A record-breaking heatwave is broiling parts of Asia, helping drive surging demand for cooling options, including air-conditioning. Yuichi YAMAZAKI / AFP
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Heatwave Swells Asia's Appetite for Air-conditioning

A record-breaking heatwave is broiling parts of Asia, helping drive surging demand for cooling options, including air-conditioning. Yuichi YAMAZAKI / AFP
A record-breaking heatwave is broiling parts of Asia, helping drive surging demand for cooling options, including air-conditioning. Yuichi YAMAZAKI / AFP

A record-breaking heatwave is broiling parts of Asia, helping drive surging demand for cooling options, including air-conditioning.
AC exhaust units are a common feature of urban landscapes in many parts of Asia, clinging like limpets to towering apartment blocks in Hong Kong or tucked in a cross formation between the windows of a building in Cambodia.
They offer relief from temperatures that have toppled records in recent weeks, with many countries in the region hitting 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) or higher.
Scientists have long warned that human-induced climate change will produce more frequent, longer and more intense heatwaves.
Only 15 percent of homes in Southeast Asia have air-conditioning, according to a 2019 report by the International Energy Agency (IEA).
But that figure obscures vast variations: ranging from around 80 percent installation in Singapore and Malaysia, to less than 10 percent in Indonesia and Vietnam, the IEA said.
Forecasts suggest that higher temperatures and better wages could see the number of air-conditioning units in Southeast Asia jump from 40 million in 2017 to 300 million by 2040.
That would stretch local electricity capacity, which is already struggling under current conditions.
Myanmar is producing only about half the electricity it needs each day, with the junta blaming weak hydropower because of scant rains, low natural gas yields and attacks by its opponents on infrastructure.
Thailand has seen record power demand in recent weeks, as people retreat indoors to cooled homes or businesses.
Air-conditioning is already responsible for the emission of approximately one billion metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, according to the IEA, out of a total of 37 billion emitted worldwide.
Still, cooling options like air-conditioning are a key way to protect human health, especially for those who are most vulnerable to the effects of extreme heat: children, the elderly and those with certain disabilities.
With demand surging, dozens of countries last year signed up to the United Nations' Global Cooling Pledge, a commitment to improve the efficiency of air conditioners and reduce emissions from all forms of cooling.
Some countries have been trying to reduce the impact of cooling for years.
Since 2005, Japan has encouraged office workers to ditch ties and jackets so air conditioners can be kept at 28 degrees Celsius.
The annual "Cool Biz" programme took on new significance during power shortages in 2011 following the shutdown of nuclear plants after the Fukushima disaster.

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Varieties

Warm Clothing, Hot Pot and Even Ice Cream Bars Feature at China’s Ice Capital

Visitors tour by the ice structures during the Harbin Ice and Snow World in Harbin, China's Heilongjiang province on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP)
Visitors tour by the ice structures during the Harbin Ice and Snow World in Harbin, China's Heilongjiang province on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP)
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Warm Clothing, Hot Pot and Even Ice Cream Bars Feature at China’s Ice Capital

Visitors tour by the ice structures during the Harbin Ice and Snow World in Harbin, China's Heilongjiang province on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP)
Visitors tour by the ice structures during the Harbin Ice and Snow World in Harbin, China's Heilongjiang province on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP)

Faced with temperatures dipping to -30 Celsius (-22 Fahrenheit), visitors to China's wintertime resort city of Harbin often make a beeline for stalls selling padded clothing to augment their wardrobes.

Oddly perhaps for some, frozen ice cream bars are also considered a key part of the visit.

Each winter, the industrial city in China's northeast turns into a magnet for those from China's balmier regions wanting to experience the extreme cold and take in the sculptures built from ice blocks carved from the Songhua River, which freezes from late October to late March.

“I searched for tips on the internet and am now wearing knitted wool pants and the thickest sweater possible,” said Jin Yiting, who was visiting with her parents from the financial hub of Shanghai, where a light jacket is usually sufficient winter garb.

Jin Yanlong runs a stall selling winter hats, gloves and boots in the park. He said that most of his customers are tourists from southern China who underestimate the frigid weather in Harbin.

“Some of the tourists wear ‘too thin.’ They come here immediately from the airport. They would find us to buy warm trousers padded with cotton,” Jin said.

Despite the freezing weather, some curious tourists are brave enough to taste the cold itself. Zhuang Chang and his friend enjoyed their Madie’er ice cream bars while strolling on a commercial street whose architecture reflects the Russian influence on the city. The brand was established in 1900s by a Russian company and has steadily grown in popularity among tourists.

“It’s cold, but my heart is warm,” Zhuang said. He also compared the humid cold months of his hometown in Zhejiang province, where “people would be frozen to the core when being hit by wind.”

“But here only my hands and face feel cold,” Zhuang said.

For those seeking a warmer alternative, there are hot drinks and steaming hot pot, a kind of stew mixing meat, vegetables, tofu and other favorites.

Restaurant owner Chi Xuewen claims to own the world's largest hot pot, where 18 individual pots featuring a variety of flavors circle the giant bowl.

“Eating anything in a hot pot makes people warm,” Chi said.

Li Long’s restaurant uses wood both to cook the food and warm the air in the ice block structure.

“The pot also radiates heat,” Li said. “Once the pot cover is lifted, customers see the hot food. In one word, it just feels hot.”

Prolonged cold has left local residents with few options for fresh vegetables, so frozen food has become an alternative. Frozen tofu left outside overnight becomes porous and is particularly good at soaking up soup and flavor, local resident Liu Xiaohui said.