Heat pumps aren’t usually considered war-fighting materiel, but these heating-and-cooling appliances could be almost as crucial to the defense of Ukraine as anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.
Heat pumps are basically air conditioners that can also run in reverse; they can heat or cool a house. As heaters, they are three to four times more energy efficient than conventional furnaces (essentially because they move hot air around rather than generating it). And because they are powered by electricity, not fossil fuels, they offer a cost-effective path toward decarbonization. Commercial and residential buildings account for 13% of U.S. and 6% of global greenhouse gas emissions; eliminating heating and cooling emissions is an essential step toward tempering climate change’s accelerating ferocity.
At the beginning of the Ukraine war, author and climate activist Bill McKibben wrote a Substack column calling on the U.S. government to launch a massive program to manufacture millions of heat pumps and send them to Europe, as a way of countering both the European Union’s reliance on Russian fossil fuels and the global climate crisis. The Biden administration is reportedly seriously considering the idea, the International Energy Agency included it in a 10-point plan to reduce the EU’s Russian fuel consumption, and more than 200 U.S. environmental groups, along with five U.S. senators, endorsed it.
