More People Are Getting Air Conditioning - and That's Really Bad for the Climate Matt Smith - VICE News
go to original May 3, 2015

Ahh, air conditioning.

The relief of modern cooling brings comfort during summer heat waves and made possible the modern metropolis of the American Sunbelt. It's being adopted increasingly by developing countries, most of which lie in the tropics and subtropics. And in a warming world, it'll be on more often.

But it takes juice to run the AC — and without improvements in energy efficiency or far greater use of carbon-free sources of energy, that'll put a chill on hopes to limit the worst effects of global climate change.

"People getting richer is a good thing," University of California, Berkeley economist Lucas Davis told VICE News. "People being able to buy more stuff and be more comfortable in their homes, this is good. It does, though, mean a large potential increase in carbon dioxide emissions."

Davis is the lead author on a new study of the impacts of global warming and increasing wealth on the adoption of air conditioning and the resulting rise in emissions.

Using Mexico as an example, Davis and co-author Paul Gertler found that country's carbon dioxide emissions could go up by anywhere from 3 to 30 million tons by 2100, depending on how severe the warming trend gets.

Under the United Nations' worst-case warming scenario, Mexico — which has a widely varied climate and about 13 percent of households with air conditioning now — could see nearly 40 more days a year with average temperatures above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 Celsius). Growing incomes could drive the percentage of air-conditioned homes sharply higher, with a 15 percent increase in electric consumption as a result.

"There's a lot of Mexican households with income levels around which we observe people buying AC at high rates," Davis said. "In just a couple of decades you could go from 13 percent to 70 or even 80 percent."

And that pattern is likely to be repeated in other, more populous countries as they industrialize and grow richer.

Read the rest at VICE News

VICE News is closely tracking global environmental change. Check out the Tipping Point blog here

Image: coolwaves.net

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