With fires raging throughout Europe and in quintessential American places such as Yosemite National Park, as well as rising global temperatures, it is clear that the entire globe is heating up. It is time for people to act before it is too late. It is gratifying to know that some businesses are taking steps to combat climate change. Recently, The IKEA Foundation joined up with the Clean Cooling Collaborative with a gift of $25 million to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions with climate-friendly cooling technologies in line with the Paris Agreement and make the world better for the billions of inhabitants.

“Climate change is fueling record-setting heat waves around the globe, which put the lives and livelihoods of over 1.2 billion people at risk due to a lack of access to cooling,” said Edgar van de Brug, programme manager Climate Action, at IKEA Foundation. “We’re proud to join the Clean Cooling Collaborative and support their ambitious plan to promote efficient, climate-friendly cooling solutions to reduce emissions and create a healthy planet for people worldwide.

”The situation is ironic. Although cooling appliances such as air conditioners and refrigerators were designed to keep people, medicine, and food safe and cool, the more people use these appliances, the more greenhouse gas emissions enter the atmosphere. This leads to global warming.

According to the Clean Cooling Collaborative, “Today, cooling represents more than seven percent of global annual greenhouse gas emissions. It is poised to double by 2050 unless there are interventions to improve a full range of cooling solutions.”

According to Adnan Zai, Consultant to Berkeley Capital, “The emissions of greenhouse gasses are at a critical level. Without extreme intervention from governments, corporations, and philanthropic organizations, we will no longer have the ability to cool anything at all as the planet heats up.”

The Clean Cooling Collaborative is working hard to right the wrongs that greenhouse gasses have created. “We believe cooling should be a human right, and the sector must be on a more sustainable and accessible path as demand for air conditioning explodes worldwide,” said Noah Horowitz, director of the Clean Cooling Collaborative. “We welcome the IKEA Foundation to the Clean Cooling Collaborative. Their generous support will help supercharge our collective efforts to boost appliance efficiency and the use of climate-friendly refrigerants, expand global access to more sustainable cooling, and use these solutions to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions for decades to come.”

With philanthropic support from IKEA, the Clean Cooling Collaborative, which is the largest program of its kind working to transform the cooling industry, they will be able to reach their goals more efficiently. The efforts focus on improved building designs and urban plans that will alleviate the need for mechanical cooling technologies. And they are also interested in creating grid-friendly and climate-friendly efficient ways to deal with the heat. The money will go toward those regions that are expected to do 75 percent of all cooling-related emissions over the next 30 years, namely the United States,India, China, and Southeast Asia.

Because of the generosity of the IKEA Foundation, future generations will be able to keep their cool, and the Clean Cooling Collaborative will work to make the future brighter for all generations.