The World’s Next Major Threat: Air Conditioner

Most users have air conditioning, but in Germany almost nobody has it and at least not yet.
When temperatures in Berlin rose to 37 degrees Fahrenheit this week, a record for the month of June, I felt extraordinarily delighted in the Bloomberg office, where it's artificial and wonderfully cool.
Air conditioning has played an important role in driving prosperity and happiness in the latest trends, and that is a revolution. Roughly half of Chinese households have this modern tool, but of the 1.6 billion people living in India and Indonesia, only 88 million have access to air conditioning in their homes, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said in a recent report.
For many, relief is in sight. As a result of the combination of population growth, increased revenues, falling equipment prices and urbanization, the number of air conditioning units installed worldwide will increase from around 1,600 million today to 5.600.
Carbon dioxide emissions increased another 2% in 2018, the fastest rate in seven years. That increase was alarming in its own right, given that we know about the development of the climate emergency. But the cause has been especially concerned: extreme weather led to higher demand for air conditioning and heating in 2018, BP Plc explained in its annual review of the energy sector.
It is not too difficult to imagine a circle in which more and more warm weather generates more and more demand for air conditioning and, therefore, a greater need for energy. That, in turn, means more emissions and even higher temperatures.
That feedback loop also exists locally. The air conditioning units channel the heat outwards, which exacerbates the effect called "urban heat island," which makes cities warmer than the countryside.
BNEF expects electricity demand from residential and commercial air conditioning to increase by more than 140% by 2050 – an increase that’s comparable to adding the European Union’s entire electricity consumption. Air conditioning will represent 12.7% of electricity demand by the middle of the century, compared to almost 9% now, it thinks.

Fortunately, most of the time will be fulfilled during daylight hours. But because temperatures do not always return to comfortable levels when the sun goes down, there is a danger of the extra electricity part supplied by fossil energy.
Buildings have long been a blind spot in climate discussions, even though they represent a part of global energy consumption. The inefficiency of air conditioning systems in homes and offices are not as striking as electric cars and make people ashamed to fly. At least the "passive" movement of Germany, a sample of some people is beginning to recognize the danger.
There are also lessons to learn from the world of lighting. The LED revolution was driven by innovation, but also by better labeling of energy efficiency in products and the discontinuation of obsolete technology. Something similar has to happen with air conditioning. There was a breakthrough in January when the Kigali word to the Montreal Protocol came into force. Although it is not well known, its goal is to eliminate the use of powerful greenhouse gases, hydrofluorocarbons, which is widely used in air conditioning systems. Unless replaced, these solos could cause a temperature of 0.4 ° C for additional heating by the end of the century.
By: Preeti Narula
Content: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/science/air-conditioning-is-the-worlds-next-big-threat/articleshow/69999842.cms