Is Daylight Saving Time good for the climate?

Scientists are divided over the potential environmental benefits of the hotly contested time change

Photo collage of a fob watch, a time card, a thermometer, and a factory with smokestacks spitting out pollution
(Image credit: Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images)

The clocks have gone back once again, ending Daylight Saving Time (DST), or British Summer Time, for 2024 – an annual practice long criticised by politicians, doctors and commuters.

Scientists are also divided over whether the time change could have the power to counter climate change. A study published in Environmental Research Letters last year found that DST decreases the energy needed to cool office buildings in the summer by nearly 6%. When the clocks go forward in spring, workers arrive at the office an hour earlier "in the cool of the morning", said Anthropocene Magazine. They leave earlier too, "which is typically when demand for cooling is greatest".

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