(CNN) It's pretty obvious that air conditioning is a necessary technology. Living in stifling heat isn't just uncomfortable, it's dangerous, which makes the fact that air conditioning is bad for our environment a difficult pill to swallow.

After all, you can't just give it up, like plastic straws or enormous SUVs.

So the Rocky Mountain Institute , along with India's Department of Science and Technology and Mission Innovation, is offering $3 million to the air conditioning genius who can solve this problem. It's called the Global Cooling Prize , and it's designed to find a more environmentally friendly solution to the growing demand for more A/C.

Oh, and the prize's ambassador is famed billionaire philanthropist Richard Branson.

JUST WATCHED How climate change could affect your wallet Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH How climate change could affect your wallet 01:30

According to a report compiled by the backers of the prize , the number of room air conditioning units is set to triple over the next 30 years -- ballooning from a current 1.2 billion units to 4.5 billion units by 2050. This, the report claims, will have a serious impact on global warming and could increase the global temperature by 0.5˚C by 2100.