Air conditioning costs four times higher due to climate change

The BoG estimates that air conditioning costs will reach over 20 billion by 2050 due to climate change. The expenditure is expected to rise four times by 2100 due to the increase in temperature which increases the need for a cooler environment.

Environment minister Tina Birbili presented this information at a conference on urban reconstruction held yesterday, stressing the need to review the environmental balance. The conference was organized by the Scientific Society for Law and Urban Planning and the Center for International and European Economic Law.

According to the minister, today a large bioclimatic building costs less than a smaller one of conventional construction.

“New materials and technologies allow small interventions with great effect. Rational use of natural resources and energy consumption are also taken into account”, she added.

As she mentioned, a number of factors lead to the degradation of areas that require immediate interventions, which will be presented soon by the Prime Minister. Among these factors are: suffocating construction with poor quality building materials, poor ventilation of roads and neighborhoods in the absence of greenery, the increase of heat due to the movement of vehicles and the use of materials that enhance global warming.

According to Birbili, new technologies have been utilized globally as a means of stopping climate change. Concerted actions have also been selected, along with increasing urban and suburban green areas, the use of cool and shading materials and restrictions in the use of vehicles.

Today, the Environment ministry is realizing an ambitious urban reconstruction program that starts off with the major intervention of turning Panepistimiou and V. Olgas into pedestrian walkways, thus completing the connection route for the archaeological sites, and the creation of a 760-acre park in the beach from the Peace and Friendship Stadium at the estuary of Kifissos up to the Tae Kwon Do gym.