Is Air conditioning bad?

In France, my countrymen aren’t in love with air-conditioning, at least, their media isn’t. In America this convenience is fully accepted and no one seems to object of its use. Granted, unlike France, residential solar panels are widespread and for example, our home production of electricity widely exceeds its consumption! 

As the European continent experiences another hot summer, scientists fear that as climate warms up, more demand for energy will grow. Based on various projections, estimates suggest that by 2050, climate change should increase energy demand for air-conditioning by 11 to 27% in the event of moderate warming, and by 25 to 58% in the event of stronger warming, further disrupting the climate by increasing the emission of greenhouse gases if no alternative energies are used. 

Air conditioning is already responsible for 10% of global power consumption, according to the International Energy Agency. With very real consequences: in cities, air conditioning causes an average increase in temperature between 1 and 1.5 degrees compared to that of the surrounding countryside. However, its worldwide use is booming.

In the United States and Japan, the adoption rate for air conditioning is close to 100%. But in emerging economies like India, Indonesia, Mexico and Brazil, adoption rates are on average less than 10%. With global warming, air conditioning is likely to increase in European countries, like France, Spain or Italy. 

The International Energy Agency estimated last year that the number of air conditioners in the world would increase from 1.6 billion units to 5.6 billion in 2050 and use as much power a China currently consumes, all activities combined.

 Power hungry air conditioning also warms the outside air. Like a heat pump, the cooling devices draws heat from the room and transfers it outside. Some say that the increase in street temperature is proportional to the air conditioning power. 

Researchers from France’s National Center for Meteorological Research claim that, if the heat emitted by Parisian air conditioners were to be doubled by 2030, the temperature increase would be an additional 2°C outside, in the street. 

If that’s the case, I’ll go and have a drink in nearby café!