Air conditioning. We can’t live without it. And according to a new United Nations report, if we don’t fix it, we won’t be able to live with it, either.
Switching to energy-efficient and climate-friendly A/C units could save the world up to 460 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions over the next 40 years.
While air conditioner producers aren’t using CFCs anymore, they’ve replaced them with industrial chemicals called hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs.
According to Gizmodo, HFCs warm the planet up to 11,700 times more than carbon dioxide, making climate change much, much worse.
Higher temperatures force more people to turn to air conditioning, thus creating an unfortunate feedback loop.
If we deal with cooling wrong, we essentially cook ourselves. Gabrielle Dreyfus, Cool Efficiency Program Manager Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development
