Due to global warming, researcher forsee that climates of the major European cities will get hotter with the years. In 2050, studies show that London will have conditions like Madrid today, the climate in Paris will correspond to the conditions prevailing today in Canberra, Australia, and Zürich like current Milano, Italy [1,2].
So what can cities do?
What are the measures to cool cities?
Some ways to cool cities are [3,4]:
- Plant more trees and adding more green infrastructure
- Reduce reflective surfaces
- Use cool materials
- Increase shading
- Cut back on parking
- Build smart buildings
- Change of behavior
- Take better measurements
... and of course: - Adding air conditioning
However, although air conditioning decrease the temperature inside buildings, it ironically, causes cities to become hotter and hotter [5].
The only way to be able to use air conditioning and to remove this heat outside the cities is:
cooling networks.
Nowadays, most of the cities are planning or already installing district heating networks to efficiently and sustainably provide heat to cities inhabitants and industries. However, almost none is planning on installing cooling networks.
As a Swiss research project, the SWEET DeCarbCH project addresses the colossal challenge of decarbonisation of heating and cooling in Switzerland within three decades and it prepares the grounds for negative CO2 emissions, thus it is our duty to warn against this lack of perparation for the future of Swiss cities.
We need to be ready for the heating and cooling demand that we will actully get. A recent study from the University of Geneva shows that the space cooling demand in the Swiss service sector will increase by 400% or more by 2050 [6].
Do not forget cooling is a campaign to make the Swiss people aware of this discrepancy between the rise of temperature in cities and the lack of cooling networks plans.
The goal is to put cooling networks higher in the priority lists of Swiss cities when planning for the future.
#dontforgetcooling
References:
[2] Studie der ETH Zürich (2019): Metropolen der Welt könnten sich drastisch erwärmen - News - SRF
[3] GoGet (2018): 5 ways science is cooling down our cities | Urban heat islands | GoGet
[5] ZME Science (2014): How air conditioning is making your city hotter
