{"id":4449,"date":"2025-08-28T10:00:05","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T10:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/angesfinanciers.org\/?p=4449"},"modified":"2025-08-29T15:09:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T15:09:18","slug":"can-we-quit-our-air-con-addiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/2025\/08\/28\/can-we-quit-our-air-con-addiction\/","title":{"rendered":"Can we quit our air-con addiction?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Building<\/div>\n

As the world gets hotter<\/a> demand for cooling systems is increasing, but energy-hungry air conditioning risks making the situation worse. Starr Charles<\/a> explores whether more efficient solutions are possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

With global temperatures rising, the world’s air-conditioning (AC) addiction is intensifying.<\/p>\n

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that roughly two billion AC units are already in operation around the world, but that by 2050 two-thirds of the world’s households are likely to own a unit.<\/p>\n

It has warned that this widening usage could see global energy demand for cooling triple in that time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The global banking system is also predicting a dramatic increase in the use of air conditioning in the coming years<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That leaves the world facing a catch-22 situation, in which people’s increasing need to keep cool makes it harder to transition away from the fossil fuels whose use is driving global warming.<\/p>\n

AC “making things worse”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Moreover, while AC is a solution for cooling interiors, the exterior units pump out warmth \u2013 making cities even hotter.<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately it solves one problem while feeding another,” Italian architect and Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Carlo Ratti<\/a> told Dezeen.<\/p>\n

“Each degree pulled from the air consumes power and pushes heat into the street, making public spaces less liveable.”<\/p>\n

“Air conditioning in response to [warmer temperatures] is just making things worse,” added Richard De Dear<\/a>, a researcher and professor at The University of Sydney whose work focuses on thermal comfort and building performance.<\/p>\n

However, says De Dear, increasing air-con dependency does not have to become the major issue feared by some.<\/p>\n

“The rise in the use of air-conditioning probably is inevitable, but it needn’t be as big a problem as the current trajectory would suggest,” he told Dezeen.<\/p>\n