Fact-check: Is air conditioning making cities hotter?

euronews (in English)

A study found that waste heat generated by a city’s worth of air conditioners during a heatwave can raise the outside temperature by more than 2 degrees Celsius.

Transcript

00:00 Is air conditioning making cities hotter? As Europe faces more frequent and more intense

00:04 heat waves, you might have considered taking the plunge and buying an air conditioning

00:09 unit. And while you might think it`s cooling things down, it`s actually doing the exact

00:13 opposite. It`s heating things up. Let`s find out why.

00:24 In France, the environmental impact of the use of A.C. has become a topic of debate lately,

00:29 particularly when left-wing MP Mathilde Panot mentioned that the temperature of a city can

00:34 be increased by up to 2 degrees Celsius due to the use of A.C.

00:38 But where does she get this number from? It comes from a study published in 2020 that

00:44 bases itself on a scenario in which air conditioners are used in all buildings of a city like Paris

00:50 to maintain an interior temperature of 23 degrees Celsius during a heat wave.

00:55 Temperature increases due to A.C. use depend on the time of day and the characteristics

01:00 of the heat wave, mainly its intensity according to the study.

01:04 The scientists used the deadly 2003 heat wave which killed more than 14,000 people in France

01:11 to model their predictions. They found that after nine days of a heat wave similar to

01:16 the one of 2003, the systematic use of A.C. during that time would increase air temperature

01:23 by up to 2.4 degrees Celsius. So, how`s that possible? Well, it`s because

01:28 air conditioners work like a heat pump, cooling a room by releasing hot air outside.

01:33 Air conditioners use more electricity than any other appliance in the home. They consume

01:38 10 percent of global electricity and leak harmful planet warming gases into the atmosphere.

01:45 And as cities are only likely to grow hotter as a result of climate change and increased

01:50 development, that means that humans will demand more indoor cooling.

01:54 In 2019, 20 percent of EU households owned an A.C. unit according to the European Environment

02:01 Agency. The number of air conditioners worldwide is

02:04 predicted to soar from 1.6 billion units today to 5.6 billion units by the middle of the

02:10 century according to a 2019 report issued by the International Energy Agency.

02:17 If left unchecked, by 2050, all the air conditioners in the world would use as much electricity

02:24 as China does for all of its activities today. The scientists behind the study give other

02:29 options to help cool down cities, including creating more green spaces and better insulating

02:35 buildings. For more fact checks and investigations, check

02:38 out our website, Euronews.com.

02:40 (music)

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