Why climate education must begin with real-world challenges like rising AC demand

Picture this: you walk into an exam hall in May; it is 44°C outside. The ceiling fans are spinning but the room is stifling. You find it hard to concentrate. Now imagine this becoming the norm for every classroom, every office, every home across India for months at a time. This is a not-so-distant possibility. It is already happening. As temperatures rise, power grids are under strain and the very systems we use to escape the heat — air conditioners — are making the problem worse. For students at the threshold of building India’s future, understanding this paradox is not optional; it is urgent.

Rising demand

India’s cooling demand is expected to grow eightfold by 2037-38. As temperatures climb, more homes, schools, hospitals, and workplaces will need air conditioning. But here is the catch: most of today’s ACs run on coal-powered electricity and use refrigerants that are potent greenhouse gases.

So, the more we cool ourselves, the more we heat the planet. The more we heat the planet, the more we need cooling. This feedback loop is one of the defining engineering challenges today, and does not have a simple fix. It requires people who can think across disciplines, who understand both the physics of heat transfer and the economics of energy, the chemistry of refrigerants and the design of cities. How does this change how today’s students study?

Often, Environmental Science in school is treated as a subject to score marks, not one that shapes how you think about everything else. Consider what climate-aware thinking looks like across subjects. A student who understands thermodynamics and the urban heat island effect will design buildings differently. One who grasps data structures and energy efficiency will write software that does not needlessly drain power from already-stressed grids. A student who connects economics with resource scarcity will approach business problems with questions that most others are not even asking yet. Climate literacy does not narrow your thinking. It deepens it.

Economic opportunity

Here is what is often left out of the conversation: climate challenges are also among the largest economic opportunities of this decade. Government programmes are investing heavily in clean energy and efficient cooling. Start-ups building green cooling solutions, solar infrastructure, EV charging networks, and water-efficient systems are attracting serious capital. These are commercially viable businesses solving real problems at scale.

Students already exploring this space are not waiting for the curriculum to catch up. Teams from IIT-Bombay have demonstrated near-zero energy building designs. Competitions like the SDI Challenge are producing innovations in thermal efficiency. Across the country, young people are building low-cost air quality monitors, smart energy systems, and materials that reduce heat absorption in buildings. Most of them are figuring it out through competitions and personal curiosity, not because their institutions pointed them here. That gap is a missed opportunity.

How can you get involved? You do not need a specialised programme. Begin by asking a different kind of question. When you study thermodynamics, ask what it means to design buildings in a 45°C city. When you study economics, ask how a country prices carbon or subsidises clean energy. When you learn to code, find out the energy cost of your programme at scale.

The students who will define India’s next chapter are not waiting for someone to hand them the syllabus. They are the ones who have already understood that the most important design problems of the coming decades are not hypothetical; they are playing out right now, every summer, across a country that is getting hotter. The question is whether you will be ready to solve them.

The author is co-founder and CTO of Optimist.