"C'est mieux que la clim" : à Lyon, un réseau de froid urbain rafraîchit des magasins sans rejeter d'air chaud

Au crématorium du Petit-Quevilly, l’excès de chaleur émis lors du processus de crémation est réutilisé via le réseau de chaleur urbain de la ville. Le système aide à chauffer une centaine de foyers.

Innovators are developing new air conditioning units to keep people cool as temperatures and humidity rise without contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. Alongside improved energy efficiency, the new tech focuses on sensing and reducing humidity in real-time and adjusting itself as humidity fluctuates throughout the day.

Cool roofs — or roofs that are bright white, reflect sunlight, and radiate heat instead of absorbing it — can help keep indoor temperatures lower and reduce the urban heat island effect.

To address shade inequality and rising heat deaths, the American Forests launched a digital tool in 2021 that scores geographic areas based on tree canopy and surface temperature, as well as other factors such as income, employment, race, age and health. It then calculates a Tree Equity Score and maps out the regions that have the greatest need for trees. With this information, Tucson aims to plant one million trees by 2030, and has already planted 120,000 over the past four years.

Pilot projects in New York City and Denver have successfully installed electric heat pumps in a variety of tenant spaces, citing ease of installation, attractive aesthetics, and energy and financial savings as boons for both tenants and the environment. In New York, heat pump units achieved an 85% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and an estimated 50% reduction in fuel costs compared to traditional central steam heating systems.

Kansas City has converted nearly 100,000 of its streetlights to LED bulbs over the last several years. The swap saves on energy, meaning less power is needed from the local coal-fired power plant.

To protect tenants from extreme heat, lawmakers in Montgomery County, Maryland, passed a policy requiring landlords to provide air conditioning capable of cooling units to at least 80 degrees Fahrenheit from June through September.

To counteract the urban heat island effect as the climate changes, cities are coating their sidewalks with “cool pavement,” a type of sealant that makes pavement more reflective so that it retains less heat. In San Antonio, applying one type of cool pavement lowered surface temperatures by 3.58 degrees on average, and in Dallas, recent measurements showed treated sidewalks were 10 degrees cooler than nearby concrete that was not treated.

Researchers of the Cooling Singapore project are using huge amounts of data to build a detailed digital twin of the city that they can use to test how effective new methods of combatting extreme heat would be. It's a digital representation of Singapore that makes predictions based on data like traffic, weather, electricity demand, and where green spaces are.

Communities around the world are developing innovative technological solutions to the growing water crisis. In California, for example, the Orange County Water District runs a wastewater recycling plant that purifies the water enough to be released back into the underground aquifer that supplies drinking water.