New tech can make air conditioning less harmful to the planet

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 group’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.