by A view of the air conditioning units, which are installed on the facade of a building in Neu -Delhi on April 18, 2025. Credit – Sajjad Hussain – AFP/Getty Images
AThe IR conditioning is one of our great guilty joys. If your city suffocates under a 100-degree heat dome, there is nothing better than the sweet relief that leaves the air conditioning and the poor atmosphere for the cooler, crunching interior. When the first large heat wave of 2025 bakes the northeast, south and the middle west, almost 150 million Americans rediscover this fact.
But the air conditioning has a high price. According to the United Nations Environmental Program, the two billion global programs are responsible for 7% of the annual global greenhouse gas emissions – a number that is expected to double by 2030 and will triple by 2050 if more than five billion units are used. This will lead to a climate piral, an increased carbon power presses the global temperatures even higher, which leads to even more air conditioning and still higher temperatures and so on.
“The air conditioning system becomes a lifeline in this overheated world,” says Ankit Kalanki, a cooling expert at RMI, a group for research and public policy that is originally known as Rocky Mountain Institute. “It is no longer a luxury. We rely on the air conditioning to feel productive, feel safe and healthy, and this is an invisible driver of electricity needs and emissions.”
In this fact, many people feel guilty about their own AC use. Our grandparents have teamed up with fans, light clothing, pulled colors and cold drinks; Couldn’t we do the same for at least routine summer heat in view of the climate change?
“The feeling of guilt consists of a sense of responsibility to do something,” says Fionnuala Walravens, senior activist at the Environmental Investigation Agency, a Green Advocacy Group. “We wonder what we can change?”
Read more: The most efficient way to operate your AC during a heat wave
AC debt is only a piece of the greater phenomenon of climate (responsibility and even a shame that many people feel when they do not recycle perfectly, compost regularly, drive minimally and keep energy consumption as low as possible. “There are often many emotions associated with each other,” says Wendy Greenspun, a clinical psychologist who is connected to the Climate Psychology Alliance North America, a non -profit organization. “There is sadness, anger, fear, fear, fear – the various emotions that I have put under the roof of the climate clothing. Guilt can be one of them.”
Management of all these emotions – and the company -important introduction of all green steps to improve them can be a considerable elevator, and almost nobody can say that they are a perfect climate citizen. However, there are many coping measures for air conditioning to keep cooling in chess and at the same time accept that the air conditioning is essential every day in an increasingly swarming world.
You can use the most important – albeit most expensive – to reduce the CO2 footprint of your air conditioning system, every model that you bought 15 years ago or earlier is scraped up and updated to a new one. In 2010, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) banned the sale of new AC units (either central alternating current or window models) that FREON-ECHT use as R-22-known as coolants. Freon, which can expire from house units and often has to be replaced and picked up, has a so-called global heating potential (GWP) of almost 2,000 and there is 2,000 times the planetary heating stamp of an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide. New units are now using Puron Advance also as R-454B-with only 465 GWP.
“Industry changes to alternatives that have a much lower ecological footprint,” says Kalanki. “It is promising when it comes to the type of refrigerant can offer similar cooling without influencing performance.”
The disposal of old units is somewhat more complex than throwing them into a city waste depon. Many state or local laws require that refrigerants are initially drained by an EPA-certified technician, according to which the AC can be recycled or derived from the local pick-up programs of the curb box.
Kalanki also recommends buying units that are connected to WLAN as an intelligent air conditioning systems and can monitor energy consumption and be controlled by the phone remote. Smart ACs enable your home to cool. If you switch on the device to reduce the temperature before you return, you can use the alternating current-to take off-at least use-the top evening if air conditioning systems usually work for your maximum. This can make a big difference for the larger world, since climate systems currently make up for 40% to 60% of the top -scale issue for the network in summer. If you keep your electricity low during these hours, you also save money, since energy companies often calculate more for the power supply consumed in this window. The containment of consumption at such times can also help to avoid network falls or power outages.
“An intelligently designed unit,” says Kalanki, “can feel and measure how much energy stress is required to cool a room. You can significantly reduce energy consumption.”
Architects and designers of apartments and single -family houses also play a role. For example, better insulation can not only keep the cold in winter, but also stay cool in summer. Shades and awnings to track down the sun can help, as can the painting of roofs – stalls of the ordinary black tar, which can be seen in cities – what reflects the warmth and light, absorb the black roofs. “There are a variety of these passive strategies that can be used for buildings,” says Kalanki.
Buying, renting or renovating a house with a ghost in terms of this efficiency as well as the installation of new, improved alternating current units and heat pumps can not only reduce your CO2 load, but also reduce your emotional stress. If you are accompanied by the feelings of guilt in the summer months in which the energy supply causes too much electricity.
A few other simple adjustments can also help. Companies such as law firms and banks can relax and connect their suit and rules in summer, according to Walravens, to lighten the load of the office climate systems that have to make the environment cool enough for people in three -digit temperatures. Adjusting our own internal thermostats can also help. From 2022, 88% of American houses had air conditioning compared to less than 10% of European houses, so With Technology Review. And we drive our units hard. A one -time analysis from 2022 showed that the US residences are kept at around 74 ° F, even if nobody is at home, and 70 ° F when the family returns.
“We have to change our attitude a little,” says Walravens. “The reality is that we can survive and be productive at higher temperatures. This may seem a bit discouraging at first, but it will consume much less energy and cause much less guilt.”
Of course, you did not cause the climate crisis alone and you cannot repair it alone. The best thing you can do is play your little role and let go of the feeling that you are to blame.
“As individuals, we can be change agents,” says Michaela Barnett, civil engineer and owner of Knoxfill, a mass sales business that is intended to restrict the use of disposable containers. “We can reconceptualize the way we think about our individual actions for changes, and the way we live with our values. We should also give ourselves grace and patience and do not wear all the weight because it is not productive.”
Write Jeffrey Kluger at jeffrey.kluger@time.com.
