New Tech Can Make Air Conditioning Less Harmful to the Planet
16th September 2024
In many parts of the world, the cool blast of an air-conditioner on a hot day is nowadays seen as a luxury rather than a necessity. Climate change is tipping the balance. Average global temperatures are now roughly 1.2°C higher than they were before the Industrial Revolution: by mid-century they are projected to be about 2°C higher. Air-conditioning (ac) use, correspondingly, is set to soar. By one estimate, the number of room-cooling acs could nearly triple between now and 2050.
These additional units will save lives, make cities liveable and stave off losses in economic productivity. The Lancet, a medical journal, estimates that access to air-conditioning averted nearly 200,000 deaths worldwide among people aged 65 or older in 2019, for instance, cutting the cohort’s heat-related mortality by 37%. But expanding those benefits more widely will come at a cost. The electricity needed for air-conditioning is already responsible for more carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions than the entire aviation industry. And as the laws of physics unhelpfully dictate that a single degree of cooling becomes more energy-intensive as the outside temperature rises, additional cooling will require more power per unit, risking a great deal more planetary heating.
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