As the Paris Olympics and Paralympics approach, there are warnings the games could be the hottest on record, beating the current holder of that dubious title 鈥� Tokyo 2020 鈥� and putting competitors at risk of heat exhaustion and potentially fatal heatstroke. In fact, average temperatures in Paris have by 1.8掳C since the city last hosted the games a century ago. The reason is obvious.
The organisers are aware of the danger and have fitted an energy efficient of underfloor pipes that carry water to cool the Olympic Village. Nonetheless, the US team has said that it will be installing its own air conditioning (AC) units, and several others are considering doing the same. These plans have reportedly miffed the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, who wants the to be the most sustainable ever and doesn鈥檛 want energy hungry air-con units busting their green credentials.
The heated t锚te-脿-t锚te between greenness and coolness is one that will increasingly play out across the world as temperatures continue to climb and as people in low-income countries become more affluent. Both trends will vastly increase the demand for cooling tech such as air con and fans. In 2018, the International Energy Agency (IEA) this 鈥渃old crunch鈥� is 鈥渙ne of the most critical yet often overlooked energy issues of our time鈥�.
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The numbers are indeed chilling. In 2016, there were around 1.6 billion AC units in operation globally, responsible for .
By 2050, the IEA forecasts that there will be over 5 billion AC units. All things being equal, their energy consumption will increase by the same factor. The number of household electric fans is also predicted to go from 2.3 billion in 2016 to 3.9 billion in 2050. They aren鈥檛 as power-hungry as AC, but will still contribute to the cold crunch. According to the United Nations Environment Program, greenhouse gas emissions related to cooling are predicted to than triple by 2050.
That is partly because AC units contain refrigerants, chiefly hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), many of which are potent greenhouse gases. They inevitably leak from units that are faulty or have been badly disposed of. Thus we potentially enter a vicious circle where spiralling temperatures add to demand for cooling, which just exacerbates the problem.
Once an overlooked issue, the cold crunch is increasingly going mainstream. Shortly before the latest major climate talks 鈥� COP28 in the United Arab Emirates in December 2023 鈥� a project led by the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling in Kigali, Rwanda, and the UK鈥檚 Centre for Sustainable Cooling at the University of Birmingham released a arguing that cooling must now be considered critical infrastructure. As the report said: 鈥淭he provision of cooling is not an optional extra or a lifestyle luxury. It is a critical service for a well-functioning, well-adapted, resilient, and healthy society and economy.鈥�
I鈥檒l throw my hat into that ring. I recently bought a new fan to make my bedroom bearable during the increasingly hot London summer nights, and would vehemently deny that it is a lifestyle luxury.
The message hit home at the COP talks: over 60 countries signed a voluntary agreement called the , which vowed to hugely increase access to cooling while actually cutting its emissions. The main tools for achieving this are decreasing the energy intensity of cooling technologies, early phase-out of the most damaging HFCs and wider adoption of passive cooling, such as insulation and green roofs.
These measures could reduce emissions from the cooling sector by 68 per cent compared with today, according to a . We shall see 鈥� voluntary agreements at COPs have a of over-promising and under-delivering. But if countries are serious, there is a cooling system on the way that could actually help reverse the underlying problem of too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Xi Chen at Columbia University in New York and his colleagues have a CO2 purification module to be added to existing AC units. It captures CO2 from indoor air and locks it away in a material called a sorbent.
The principal goal is to cut indoor air pollution, but if widely used, Chen says this could suck CO2 out of the atmosphere in quantities dwarfing those currently possible or economically feasible with the outdoor-air equivalent, an industrial endeavour known as direct air capture (DAC).
One big problem with DAC is that CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere are so low. But put a load of people in a building, all exhaling CO2 all day long, and that problem disappears. Enough, indeed, to use indoor DAC to bring global CO2 concentrations down to pre-industrial levels. Cool.
Graham鈥檚 week
What I鈥檓 reading
I鈥檒l be on holiday in Mexico City when this is published, so probably an old-school guide book.
What I鈥檓 watching
We Are Lady Parts on Channel 4.
What I鈥檓 working on
A charming story about honey.
Graham Lawton is a staff writer at 麻豆传媒 and author of Mustn鈥檛 Grumble: The surprising science of everyday ailments. You can follow him @grahamlawton
