As climate change brings longer, more frequent, and more severe heat waves, air conditioning will only become a hotter (or should we say cooler) commodity. While this sought-after system eases the impacts of a warming world, it also contributes to the problem: Hydrofluorocarbons, or the refrigerant chemicals that make air conditioning possible, are thousands of times worse for the environment than carbon dioxide. That’s because they’re particularly good at trapping heat.
