Giving Compass' Take:

• Air conditioners can contribute to carbon capture, which is when machines suck carbon dioxide from the air into filters as a way to combat climate change.

• This piece mentions that this is a way for people to address climate change and take action without waiting for more prominent corporations to take charge. What steps are philanthropists taking to address these issues?

• Here is a framework for addressing the impacts of climate change. 

The air conditioners and ventilation systems on apartment complexes or office towers aren’t typically a tool for fighting climate change. Air conditioning, alone, may use so much electricity by the middle of the century that it could push up the average global temperature by half a degree. But what if instead of contributing to climate change, HVAC systems could instead remove carbon from the air as they kept us cool.

The idea behind carbon capture is that machines suck carbon dioxide from the air–an example of “negative emissions.” This requires moving around large volumes of air, and the machines typically do that by running fans, a process that itself uses a lot of energy.

The system would be fairly simple: Modular attachments to air conditioners could pull air inside and through filters that capture CO2. Then a combination of renewable energy and waste heat could be used to convert it into a carbon-neutral liquid fuel that could be used to replace, say, jet fuel.

The research institute already works with Climeworks and other companies in the industry, and is now beginning to talk with air conditioning and ventilation businesses about setting up a first pilot. If the idea happens, Dittmeyer argues that it would have a second advantage: making it easier for people to get directly involved in tackling climate change. To meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement, we’ll need not only to shift to a zero-carbon economy filled with electric vehicles and renewable energy–we’ll also need some strategy for removing the extra CO2 already in the atmosphere.

“With such a decentralized scheme, you have the opportunity to reach a large amount of individuals that might be willing to do something,” Dittmeyer says. “This is enabling the crowd to do something, rather than waiting for big companies to solve the problem.

Read the full article about air conditioners and climate change by Adele Peters at Fast Company.