This summer, record temperatures across Europe and the United States have dominated media attention, with heat maps shaded deep red, school closures, rail line slowdowns, wildfires, and emergency rooms treating increasing numbers of heat-related illnesses. Public officials have advised staying indoors, drinking water, and using air conditioning. However, access to cooling is increasingly a matter of survival, and inequality within and among countries will determine the fate of millions.
Inequality and Heat: A Deadly Combination
In the United States and Europe, millions of households already struggle to pay electric bills, and rising temperatures force them to use more electricity to stay safe. In the global south, dangerous heat collides with unreliable electricity, overcrowded housing, limited air conditioning, weak public health systems, and widespread poverty, leading to potential human catastrophes. Extreme heat kills about 2,000 people annually in the US, and Europe's heat dome killed over 1,300 people in less than two weeks in June.
Challenges in Lower-Income Countries
During a visit to India, Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, observed that government officials understood the need to expand electricity systems, improve housing, increase efficient cooling, and strengthen public health planning, but lacked resources. The Lancet estimates hundreds of thousands of heat-related deaths each year, with the burden growing fastest in south Asia and Africa. The United Nations warns that extreme heat widens inequality, slows economic development, and exacts a growing human toll, often on those who contributed least to greenhouse gas emissions.
Strategic Investment, Not Foreign Aid
Simply shipping air conditioners to developing countries is not a solution, as electric grids often cannot support them. Wealthy nations should help lower-income countries invest in cheaper, more stable clean energy to build climate-resilient infrastructure. Development banks, international climate funds, private investors, and wealthier nations must partner in financing climate adaptation. This is not traditional foreign aid but an investment in global health, economic stability, and human resilience.
Domestic Challenges Remain
Wealthy countries have not solved their own cooling challenges. Millions of American and European households struggle with rising electricity bills, and many families must choose between paying the electric bill and staying safe during extreme heat. Funding for the primary US energy assistance program helps only about one in six eligible families. Addressing this shortfall is a question of political priorities.
The Next Climate Divide
Helping lower-income countries build reliable electricity systems is a strategic investment. If the US and Europe fail to partner in financing climate adaptation, other countries will expand their economic influence and geopolitical ties across the developing world. Climate policy has long focused on reducing carbon emissions, but it must also address helping people survive the climate already created by investing in reliable electricity, affordable cooling, and heat resilience in the countries that can least afford them. The next great climate divide will be between those with resources to adapt and those without.
