The movement to make A/C energy efficient

Air conditioners have been bad for the planet, but we'll likely continue to need them.

Air conditioners on building.
(Image credit: Pablo Blazquez Dominguez / Getty Images)

As heat waves blaze across the world, the demand for air conditioners has soared. However, air conditioners are notoriously unsustainable and increase emissions, prompting climate change to worsen and heat waves to become more common, which CNN called the "Catch 22 of climate change." Increased heat levels are going to become a new normal as climate change worsens, and cooling mechanisms will become more and more necessary for survival. Can air conditioning be made sustainable?

What makes air conditioning unsustainable?

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Devika Rao, The Week US

 Devika Rao has worked as a staff writer at The Week since 2022, covering science, the environment, climate and business. She previously worked as a policy associate for a nonprofit organization advocating for environmental action from a business perspective.