Making the world hotter: India's expected AC boom

BEHROR, India - Ratan Kumar once battled India's brutal summers with damp bedsheets and midnight baths. Now he is among millions of Indians using air conditioning - helping make the world hotter still.

With India's AC market expected to explode from 30 million to a billion units by 2050, the world's second-most populous country could become the planet's top user of electricity for cooling.

India is already the No 3 producer of greenhouse gases, burning through 800 million tons of coal every year - and the predicted AC boom could mean the country would have to triple its electricity production to meet demand, experts say.