Wasteful heating, ventilation and air con must be CO2 reduction priority

A new report, ‘Wreaking HVAC On Our Planet’, suggests policymakers are failing to focus on one of the biggest contributors to energy-related emissions. 

According to New Conry Tech, which produced the analysis, the heating, ventilation and air conditioning industry (HVAC) produces more carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions each year than all passenger vehicles and flights, with a footprint greater than any individual country, except China. 

Overall, the sector releases 5.5gigatonnes of CO2 every 12 months, accounting for 15% of total energy-related emissions. A key factor within this comes down to waste, with ageing equipment offering poor efficiency, while end-users often run systems unnecessarily. However, the HVAC problem is increasing, partly as a result of rising global temperatures and more extreme weather conditions. Buildings are becoming more reliant on artificial climate control, and air conditioning use in particular is predicted to grow between 25 and 33% by 2050. 

‘The world is getting hotter, but the technology needed to keep us comfortable is a major contributor to climate change,’ said Sam Ringwaldt, report author and CEO at Conry Tech, a company now working towards a 40% reduction in its emissions, and researching new HVAC technologies. ‘As more of the world experiences 40°C+ days, air conditioning will cease to be a luxury in these regions, it will become a necessity for human health, wellbeing, and survival. If we can’t live without HVAC, we need to find better ways to live with it and not allow it to wreak havoc on our planet.

‘The HVAC sector creates more greenhouse gases than all the passenger vehicles on the planet combined,’ they continued. ‘Far more than other well-known problematic sectors such as mining, concrete production, and aviation. Not only is the HVAC industry a major polluter, but its extreme consumption of electricity is also delaying the global transition to renewable energy by putting extra pressure on the grid. Each year, air-conditioning alone consumes twice as much energy as all the solar energy generated worldwide.’

You can read the full report here.

More on waste: 

Here’s looking at you, Qatar: Water management in a desert state

China uses sunlight and seawater for plastic recycling

Overshoot 365: Comparing nations on natural resource consumption

Image: Alex Perz