High efficiency ac could save 25gt of CO2
Upgrading all existing room air conditioners to highest efficiency units, combined with the transition to lower GWP refrigerants, could save 25 gigatons of CO2equivalents by 2030.
A draft report presented at last week’s 36th Montreal Protocol OEWG meeting in Paris suggested that such an action would provide a substantial part of the mitigation needed to keep the planet from warming more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels – a figure considered by many as the upper temperature limit for preventing potentially irreversible and catastrophic climate change impacts.
The report by researchers at California’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) maintains that improving the efficiency of air conditioners and switching to lower GWP refrigerants could avoid an estimated 25 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2030, 32.5 billion tonnes in 2040, and 40 billion tonnes in 2050. Savings in peak demand could be equal to 500-1200GW of electricity …