AC keeps you cool in summer. But experts warn it comes at a high cost to the environment

From ordinary households to plush shopping malls and offices, the cool breeze of an air conditioner offers some much-needed respite from the sweltering heat and humidity on a tropical summer day.

However, for all the benefits of using an air conditioner, it comes at a terrible cost to the environment, experts have warned.

While an AC can cool down a room in a matter of moments, it also contributes greatly to raising the temperature outside.

When used by a large number of households in a neighbourhood, ACs can increase the average temperature in that vicinity. It also emits a gas which is very harmful for the environment, experts say.

Once considered a luxury, ACs have become a necessity nowadays and can be found in most households in the city. Be it a car, shop, movie theatre or a restaurant, cooling systems are in wide use everywhere with sales picking up particularly as the summer sets in.

Photo: Mahmud Zaman Ovi

Unable to bear the severe heat, Lutfor Rahman, a resident of Moghbazar, bought his first ACs last summer. A garment trader in Islampur, Rahman installed them in his and his daughter's bedrooms.

“It is almost impossible to put up with the heat outside, particularly when you're stuck in traffic. We can’t even stay indoors on a summer day because of the heat as my apartment is on the top floor. My children fall sick due to the heat. That’s why I bought two ACs last summer,” he told bdnews24.com.

Rahman, however, was not aware of the AC's detrimental effects on the environment.

“We use the AC as we need it. I don’t know why it is harmful for the environment,” he said.

Tunazzina Jahan, an executive at a private firm, is aware of the adverse effects of an air conditioner. However, she sees no alternative to using one.

“There’s no alternative to using AC amid the hot and humid weather in Dhaka. I can’t bear the heat,” she said.

She is allergic to both hot and cold weather and it causes her to have a cold and cough. She only uses the AC for a short time during the day but it runs throughout the night.

Five of the eight rooms at her home are fitted with an AC and it is much the same in her office.

“During summer, all five ACs are turned on for the entire night,” Tunazzina said.

Photo: Mostafigur Rahman

ACs are available at different prices in the market. As the customers have very little understanding of the technology, they buy the appliance whenever the price suits them.

But the cheap ACs are the ones that are most damaging to the environment, according to experts.

Prof Ahmad Kamruzzaman Majumder, the chairman of Stamford University's Department of Environment Science, explained how air conditioners raise the heat outdoors while cooling an indoor space.

The use of air-conditioners can affect the environment in three ways - directly, indirectly and through its by-products, he explained.

“The neighbourhood of Dhanmondi has about 1,168 buildings. If each one of them has 10 floors on an average, then the total number of floors crosses 11,000. Now, if one floor has 10 ACs installed at a minimum, Dhanmondi has more than 100,000 ACs installed in its buildings,” the environmentalist said.

“If one AC increases the temperature of a square-foot area, then 100,000 ACs cover 100,000 square-feet.”

The increased reliance on air energy-hungry conditioners also raises the power consumption, said Dr Kamruzzaman.

“A household will consume more electricity when using an AC instead of just the lights and a fan. The bill will shoot up to Tk 3,000-4,000 from Tk 1,000,” he said.

“This is creating a burden on our power grids through the increase in demand. To meet that demand, the government is opening different power plants, which are also severely damaging to the environment.”

The gas used to power an AC is known as a refrigerant. Until the 1990s, Chlorofluorocarbon or CFC refrigerant was used in the ACs, which is also known as Freon or R22.

In 2010, the United States stopped the production and import of R22 gas under its pure air policy, considering the damage it causes to the atmosphere's ozone layer.

The US banned the use of CFC in the 1990s and is now on the verge of phasing out the production and use of HCFCs (hydrochlorofluorocarbons), according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

International treaties such as the Montreal Protocol are also in force to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of numerous substances that are responsible for its depletion. Signed on Sept 16, 1987, it directs its signatories to stop the use of harmful chemical gases like CFCs and HCFCs in the developed and developing nations.

Bangladesh signed the protocol in 1990 and also received a certificate of appreciation from the UNEP in 2018 for successfully implementing programmes under the protocol.

The emission of HCFC gas is damaging the environment in Bangladesh, said Prof Majumder, who is also the joint secretary at Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon, an environment campaign group.

“The amount of carbon used in making an AC plays an important role in global warming,” he said. “An AC continues emitting the harmful gases even after its lifetime.”

Photo: Mahmud Zaman Ovi

Night-time temperatures do not drop much in the residential areas of the city because of the high number of ACs in use, the environmentalist said. “It creates a heat island.”

The government is taking the steps to stop the use of harmful gases like HCFC in ACs, said Ziaul Haque, the director of the Department of Environment's Air Quality Department.

They also plan to use ‘environmentally-friendly’ air conditioners as early as possible, he told bdnews24.com.

The authorities have already given directives to the AC and fridge-manufacturing companies to use environment-friendly gases instead of HCFC, he said.

“This will be applicable from next January,” the official said.

HCFC is still not banned globally but policymakers from 200 countries had agreed to limit its use gradually when they met in Rwanda in 2016. This marks an important amendment to the Montreal Protocol.

Bangladesh has already stopped importing CFC gas, according to Ziaul.

“An atom of HFC creates toxic gas equivalent to 2,000 to 12,000 atoms of carbon dioxide and contributes to global warming,” he said.

“Bangladesh plans to cut down its use by 97.5 percent by 2045.”

Imported ACs are not allowed to hit the market if the authorities detect CFCs in them, said Syed Nazmul Ahsan, the director of Environment Clearance Certificate Division of the DoE.

“We make certain pledges whenever we attend a convention or meeting on global warming or climate change and always try to implement them,” he said.

“In Bangladesh, we’re trying our best to use eco-friendly gases in making ACs,” the official said. But the process is yet to become ‘fully environmentally-friendly’, according to him.

No matter what gas is used in an AC, it still harms the environment, said Dr Rejuan Hossain Bhuiyan, the chairman of Dhaka University's Department of Geography and Environment.

“Any gas used in these cooling machines will damage the environment. The more human beings want to live in luxury, the more it will affect the environment. This can’t be avoided,” he told bdnews24.com.

“The gas emitted from an AC increases the temperature and upsets the ratio of oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen in the air, which is detrimental to the environment. Not only Bangladesh but the entire world will be impacted.”

He also underlined the role of ACs in spreading mosquito-borne diseases.

“(Wall-mounted) ACs that we use in urban areas have a part of them protruding outside the house. When it rains, clean water fills the tray at the bottom of the ACs, turning them into a breeding ground for Aedes mosquitoes. Therefore, the plush neighbourhoods have more cases of dengue and chikungunya than the slums.”

To reverse the damage done to the environment through the use of ACs, Prof Hossain suggests planting more trees.

“There’s no alternative to planting trees if we want to maintain the healthy ratio of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It can compensate for the oxygen deficiency.”

There will be no dearth of space to plant trees in the city if buildings and structures are constructed upon following the RAJUK guidelines, he added.