When it comes to heating the planet, the fluid in your AC is thousands of times worse than CO2

ISABELLA O’MALLEY
Associated Press

Air conditioning has made life in many hot places possible, but the special fluids that make it work are extremely hazardous to the climate. Refrigerants used in fridges, freezers, and cars change from a fluid to gas to transport heat away from the place you want cooled. They can absorb several thousand times more heat than water or other common fluids, making them great for cooling systems, but bad for climate change when they escape. In 2016, the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol phased down the use of one damaging group of refrigerants 85% by 2036. According to the most recent report from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, it will meaningfully prevent some warming of the Earth if fully enforced.