Commentary: How do we escape the air-conditioning trap?
CNA
Expecting people to give up air-conditioning is unrealistic, which means we must find ways to ensure that cooling our spaces does not warm the planet further, says NUS’ Khoo Teng Chye.
SINGAPORE: Each time a sweltering day comes around, the most common response is to crank up the air-conditioner. But what is perhaps the easiest and most convenient way to beat the heat has increasingly been referred to as a climate felon.
For one, air-conditioners are energy guzzlers and emitters of greenhouse gases responsible for about four per cent of global emissions. This might go up further given how global demand for air-conditioning could more than triple by 2050, according to a United Nations Environment Programme report published last November.
Unfortunately, this forms the irony of an air-conditioning trap – warmer weather leads to higher use of air-conditioners, which in turn leads to higher temperatures. With the need for climate adaptation becoming ever more urgent, change is necessary.
A conventional air-conditioning system works by pulling warm air from a room, passes it over cold evaporator coils filled with refrigerant that absorbs the heat and expels it outdoors with the condensers at the aircon ledge.
In cities like Singapore, this exacerbates the urban heat island effect. Studies have shown that the temperature difference in built-up and more rural areas here can be as high as 7 degrees Celsius.
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Expecting people to give up air-conditioning is unrealistic, which means we must find ways to ensure that cooling our spaces does not warm the planet further, says NUS’ Khoo Teng Chye.
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