UN projects AC emissions to nearly match US-Europe carbon pollution
Air conditioning saved nearly 58,000 lives in the United States between 2010 and 2020, according to a study in Nature Health reported Monday. Scientists say the cooling prevents more than 5,000 deaths a year in the United States alone, while also heating up the planet and taxing the electrical grid.
As the world warms, heat waves strike nearly every continent, and United Nations officials estimate that about half a million people die from heat each year. Air conditioning is needed and being used more than ever.
Air conditioning use is skyrocketing around the world, with electricity demand from cooling expected to triple, according to the International Energy Agency and the United Nations Environment Programme.
Most of the electricity used for cooling comes from burning fossil fuels. The United Nations projects the amount of heat-trapping gas released into the atmosphere from air conditioning use to rise from 4.5 billion to 7.2 billion tons in the next 25 years or so.
That 7.2 billion tons is almost as much as the carbon pollution the United States and Europe produce now.