I'm Kento Bento.
This video is made in partnership with Bill Gates.
So, here's a statement: over the last 50 years,
Hong Kong has become a giant refrigerator.
That's right, despite its hot, humid, subtropical climate,
the city remains an icicle all year round.
But what do I mean by this?
Well, Hong Kong has a bizarre problem.
It has developed an obsession with air-conditioners so extreme
it no longer makes any sense.
Winter coats are needed during the sweltering summer.
ACs are blasted in the midst of winter.
All throughout this densely-populated metropolitan,
you'll see the signature sights of white cooling boxes
littering the residential landscape.
And commercial buildings aren't better.
Tourist publications have warned travelers
of arctic shopping malls and icy restaurants,
with Lonely Planet cautioning "temperatures are set so low,
you may find your extremities turning blue."
It's no surprise that in Hong Kong, electricity consumption per capita
is among the highest in the world,
with ACs chugging 34% of all electricity used in the city,
over three times the global average, jumping to 60% in the summer.
If you live in a typical Hong Kong or American home,
your air conditioner uses more electricity
than your lights, refrigerator, and computer combined.
This makes it the biggest consumer of electricity you own,
and the single largest household producer of carbon emissions.
Now, there are many countries around the world
that use and abuse their air conditioners,
Singapore, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the US, to name a few,
but Hong Kong, the city I grew up in,
takes all this to a whole new level.
So, this raises questions, why are there so many ACs? Why is the temperature set so low?
And strangest of all, why can't they just turn it off?
With Hong Kong, the answer is never simple.
But let's start at the beginning.
Blast-off, 1935.
This was when the old Hong Kong and Shanghai
bank building was completed, the head office of HSBC.
At the time, this was the tallest building in Hong Kong, 70 meters,
which is hard to imagine now.
Despite its grandeur,
this wasn't enough for HSBC's chief manager,
who had asked the architects to build him the best bank in the world.
To him, this meant centralized air-conditioning,
a first in Hong Kong.
And so, well, HSBC's head office
became the nation's first fully air-conditioned building.
But it wasn't until almost 40 years later in 1972
that ACs made the leap from commercial to residential.
Until then, much to the chagrin of manufacturers,
ACs in Hong Kong were usually found in offices and retail centers,
with most people simply using electric fans.
Yes, Hong Kongers, at one point, had to be convinced
that ACs were a necessity rather than a luxury,
if only that were the case now.
Apparently, part of the reason for this sudden popularity
was a memorable episode of a popular local TV sitcom
that followed a family's quest to install an AC unit,
quite the luxury, along with their trials and tribulations.
This included dealing with the social jealousies
triggered in their community.
And this left a big impression on viewers.
It wasn't long until having an AC or a 'lang hay gay'
as the locals call it,
became something of a status symbol in Hong Kong,
signifying success, modernity and comfort.
Now, understanding the market potential, electricity corporations and AC brands
started pushing further for the widespread installation
of air conditioners,
to the point of accusations being thrown around
of the aforementioned sitcom episode being product placement.
By this point, the AC markets of other countries
had also exploded, with the US having its boom in the 1950s
but Hong Kong would soon separate itself from the pack.
Now, the first prime minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew,
famously called air conditioners "the greatest invention of the century",
allowing the rapid modernization of his tropical country,
and the same could no doubt be said of Hong Kong.
As more shopping malls and commercial centers sprung up
in the following decades,
the need to satisfy the consumer base grew in tandem,
and the icy breeze of air conditioning was key to their success.
Many locals will say ACs are necessary to create a people-friendly environment
in this sub-tropical climate,
providing a cool refuge for those sweating buckets
out on the streets, soothing their stresses and anxieties
undoubtedly heightened by those packed Hong Kong crowds.
But one can argue it's really more about creating a consumer-friendly environment.
If the temperature difference is significant,
it may give the visitor a greater sense of prestige
and for many Hong Kongers, it's all about prestige.
For malls or shops where the ACs are set to a higher temperature
or, God forbid, completely absent,
potential customers may automatically perceive
the establishment as more primitive, discouraging their entry and patronage.
However, walking into an extremely cool shop
after being in 25-38°C high-humidity heat, that's up to 100°F,
well, the price tag in front of you may no longer seem so outrageous,
perhaps this scarf is worth it after all!
And, speaking of winter items,
some have said ACs are intentionally turned way down
to push the sales of sweaters, coats, jackets, scarfs, and the like,
essentially, an effective way of promoting their winter sale.
Now, the Hong Kong government officially recommends
that room temperatures be maintained between 23 and 26°C in summer,
and between 20 and 24°C in winter,
but not surprisingly many commercial centers have failed
to follow these guidelines,
with temperatures frequently dropping well below the government-stipulated minimum.
Some of the worst offenders include the most popular and luxurious
of shopping destinations, including,
The Landmark, Pacific Place, Times Square, and IFC mall;
with IFC purportedly being as low as 15°C or 59°F.
To maximize profits,
these corporations really had cemented the AC
as an essential part of the Hong Kong lifestyle.
Moreover, it's not just malls and shopping centers
that neglect the government's temperature guidelines,
but almost everywhere else: supermarkets, restaurants,
libraries, buses, taxis, school classrooms,
university campuses, theaters, post offices,
and even their own government offices.
It's clear that it's not just consumerism motivating this AC culture.
It runs much deeper than that.
There's a widely-held belief in Chinese traditional medicine
that lots of fresh air and circulation is necessary for maintaining good health,
and from our last video on Hong Kong
about their exceedingly long life expectancy,
it's clear that Hong Kongers care a great deal
about their general health and wellbeing,
which perhaps calls into question what many believe fresh air actually is.
A lot of people conclude from this traditional belief
that air conditioners need to be on all the time
because they provide fresh air and circulation.
"AC equals healthy" seems to be the motto,
which indeed explains a core aspect
of their general eagerness to use air conditioners,
but the irony is that the opposite is often true.
And I'm not just talking about the severe chilling of skin
and damp, sweaty clothing,
or the fact that you're more likely to catch a winter cold
in the summertime due to frequent and drastic temperature changes,
but a critical misconception of ACs
that has caused a great deal of harm throughout the decades.
You see, in 2003, Hong Kong experienced the SARS outbreak,
the first pandemic of the 21st century.
In 2009, there was the H1N1 swine flu.
Both resulted in deaths in the hundreds and illness in the thousands.
As a result, Hong Kong's public health system
implemented several public policies
to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future.
This boiled down to: wash your hands, quarantine,
wear a face mask,
I'm sure these are all sounding quite familiar,
and increase in-door air circulation.
Now, that last one tapped into what had long been ingrained.
If more indoor air circulation was needed, then that meant cranking the AC harder,
longer, faster, colder.
"AC equals healthy".
The outbreaks only further entrenched this mindset.
Of course, the problem with all this
is that infections actually spread more swiftly
in cold conditions.
In fact, the transmission of SARS largely occurred
in well-air-conditioned environments, low temperatures and low humidity,
with one study finding the risk of SARS in Hong Kong
to be 18 times higher in lower temp conditions.
In addition, there's actually technically very little air cleaning involved with ACs
as mesh filters fail to catch bacteria, viruses,
and the numerous pollutants from the outside air
and we all know Hong Kong's outside air isn't exactly fresh.
Worse yet, many large commercial buildings
actually turn off their fresh air handling units
in favor of recirculating the already-chilled air through the system,
recycling the same air over and over again.
This is to save millions of dollars each year.
And so, well, taking all this into account,
it's fairly shocking then that, even in the middle of winter,
ACs are being blasted for the express purpose
of maintaining circulation,
rather than the need to lower temperatures.
Now, imagine the further intensifying of fears,
along with poor practices, with the emergence of COVID-19.
But, you might be thinking, still, this isn't enough,
this isn't enough to fully explain the excessive use of ACs
on a systemic level.
And, you'd be right. Because, ultimately, as often the case, it comes down to cost.
In Hong Kong, electricity is supplied by two companies,
CLP Holdings, for Kowloon and New Territories
and Hong Kong Electric Company for Hong Kong Island,
and, in general, prices are made quite inexpensive
across homes and businesses,
to the point where even on the cheap and smaller end of HK apartments,
ACs are a common sight
and we all know Hong Kong apartments can get pretty small.
This size issue, by the way, can have some real consequences,
which I discuss in the extended Nebula version of this video,
more on that at the end.
But, the thing is, the price system here is really skewed.
Breaking it down,
electricity consumers are divided into three categories:
residential users, standard non-residential users,
and the big-wigs, high-consumption non-residential users.
The first two are charged progressive rates,
as in the more electricity they consume, the more they pay, as one would expect.
But for the last category, high-consumption non-residential users,
they're charged regressive rates,
the more electricity they consume, oftentimes the less they pay,
or at least the less unit rate they pay.
So, total costs decline substantially once a certain threshold is reached.
This means "large users of electricity pay proportionally less than small users".
And who are these large users? Well, mostly the conglomerates,
the ones who own those gigantic shopping malls,
office buildings, and other commercial centers.
So, they are incentivized to crank the AC, whether winter or summer.
One possible solution to this problem is for the government
to unify these electricity rates for household and commercial users,
so that households are no longer handicapped.
That way residential users
don't have to subsidize the electricity bills of commercial users.
But, of course, as with politics, that's easier said than done.
Now, with all that said,
there's an even larger-scale concern we have on our hands,
and that's loop.
You see, there's something that happens
when millions of people turn on their ACs at the same time
in a metropolitan area such as Hong Kong:
a lot of excess heat gets pumped out into the streets.
This results in something called the Urban Heat Island effect,
where the city gets significantly warmer than its surrounding rural areas.
This in turn leads to people to feel hotter
with a greater need to cool off,
which leads to even more people turning on their ACs
and at even lower temperatures.
This overuse of ACs creates a local feedback loop
that, ironically, worsens the initial problem.
But there's actually another larger feedback loop
that's even more concerning here.
With ACs being the single biggest electricity guzzler in Hong Kong
and many other developed nations,
it's resulting in unprecedented levels of carbon emissions.
As we burn fossil fuels to generate electricity
for all that AC use,
we pollute the atmosphere with huge amounts
of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide.
This warms up the surface temperature of earth,
making us hotter,
and this feeds the need for more air conditioning.
Once again, a vicious cycle. Cold air heating the world.
This is the awful irony we're facing,
and, obviously, it isn't unique to Hong Kong.
Looking at surrounding countries,
this growing dependence on cooler air has already made the Asia-Pacific region
the largest global air conditioning market,
selling roughly as many units as the rest of the world combined.
In total, that's 1.6 billion AC units worldwide,
enough for one for every seven people on Earth.
Here's the scary part:
air conditioning today is concentrated in only a small number of countries.
Most homes in the hottest regions,
predominantly those in developing nations,
have not yet purchased their first AC.
And income and living standards are rising fast
in these emerging economies,
meaning AC sales are shooting up.
With this, comes rapid industrialization, as we've seen time and time again,
inevitably leading to hotter cities,
and, of course, increased demand for ACs, more feedback loops.
At this rate, worldwide electricity demand for cooling
will more than triple by 2050,
with two billion tonnes of carbon dioxide released annually.
This translates to 5 billion AC units in operation around the world,
making them as ubiquitous as mobile phones today,
with China, India and Indonesia accounting for half of the total number.
We are on an ever-worsening trajectory, with the solution most people turning to
being part of the problem.
Now, fortunately, there is a sustainable path to the future of cooling
that doesn't involve taking everyone's air conditioners away, but it's gonna be difficult.
Installing more efficient cooling systems is the place to start.
With air conditioning relying on century-old technology,
it's perhaps unsurprising that they're often energy-intensive.
However, innovative new technology is leading
to far more energy-efficient units
and a more efficient system leads
to less waste heat being pumped out into the street.
This could cut energy demand in half by 2050,
taking a huge chunk out of future emissions.
Unfortunately, though, today's consumers
are just not buying the most efficient air conditioners,
instead, weighing up other factors, like cost.
Yes, not everyone can afford
a top-shelf energy-efficient unit with the latest tech,
but people often forget that the least efficient ACs
end up being more expensive in the long-term,
due to higher electricity bills.
But electricity isn't the only concern here.
Air conditioners also contain refrigerants, known as F-gases,
that leak out little by little over time.
And F-gases are extremely powerful contributors
to climate change.
Replacing these with units with less harmful refrigerants,
or ones that use water instead, would make a huge difference.
And there's a host of other innovations that can further push efficiency as well.
But, okay, why not just construct buildings
that require very little cooling in the first place?
This would be a long-term cost effective approach.
After all, many of the concrete and glass cages
in today's metropolises are unable to withstand heatwaves.
How about then bringing back some of the pre-AC architectural techniques
that have cooled buildings in centuries past,
but with, of course, modern technology?
Taking inspiration from some of these bygone methods
in addition to retrofitting older buildings
with proper ventilation would certainly go a long way.
By the way, more architectural innovations relating to climate change
are highlighted in my video 'How to Save The Maldives'.
If you're interested, you can check that out.
However, for truly effective change, we need good policies in place.
We need legislation
to ensure minimum energy performance standards,
energy labels for ACs,
and updated building codes and standards,
just to name a few.
Unfortunately, it seems to have escaped the notice
of most governments today.
Even in countries who do set minimum efficiency standards for ACs,
they're often outdated and unenforced, this certainly is the case for Hong Kong.
If only government policies kept up with the times,
it would quickly and greatly assist in influencing the kinds of change
that the severity of the crisis demands on a systematic and global scale.
Now, as for action we can decide to take ourselves,
well, there's always reducing or eliminating our dependence on ACs.
Even one voluntary night without air conditioning
can be important for influencing future behavior,
as well as lowering carbon emissions,
which is the whole idea behind the annual Hong Kong energy-saving event
dubbed "No Air Con Night"
organized by local environmental group, Green Sense.
Their latest event saw 90,000 households, 246 companies and organizations,
287 schools, and 49 universities take part.
Now, that's a great start,
but, well, with air conditioning in Hong Kong accounting
for 34% of its total energy consumption,
as mentioned, over triple the global average,
it's still very much a city wholly reluctant
to give up its cool air.
Hong Kong is a fridge of a city. But it's not too late to thaw.
And it's not too late for the rest of the world.
Our planet is at a crossroads.
The United Nations climate body, IPCC, has warned,
we only have as little as 10 years left to avert our climate catastrophe.
If we are to meet their recommendations to keep rising temperatures below 1.5°C,
our addiction to electricity excess has to stop, and not just air conditioners,
but any device running on fossil fuels.
We need to get from 51 billion tonnes
of total carbon emissions emitted per year, to zero.
Zero is what we need to aim for.
And, well, that will be tough.
In fact, everything we're suffering through right now
with COVID may pale in comparison.
It's been long warned by experts that a pandemic was virtually inevitable,
but the world was hit unprepared.
Now they're saying the same with climate change.
Will this be any different? Only time will tell.
But if we start now,
allowing science and innovation to lead the way,
and making sure our solutions reach the poorest and most vulnerable,
we might just make it through this time without catastrophe.
This video was created in partnership with Bill Gates,
inspired by his new book "How to Avoid a Climate Disaster."
You can find out more about how we can all work together
to avoid such a climate disaster by clicking the link below.
As for the extended version of this video, you can check out Nebula.
There, I add an additional chapter, "Cage"
about how Hong Kong's tiny apartments and office spaces
further contribute to their AC problem, as well as some personal grievances.
It's a very important issue, climate change,
so I do encourage you to explore for yourself
what's facing us in the coming decades.
And, well, this book, "How to Avoid a Climate Disaster"
for me, has been a real interesting read.
Really helped with the making of this video.
So, big thanks to Bill Gates for partnering up with us,
and, of course, thank you for sticking around to the end.
If you wanna help support this channel,
reminder, that every merch order comes with a free month of Nebula.
So check that out. Anyway, that's it from me.
Take care, turn off your ACs, and I'll see you in the next Asiany video.