Gases that damaged the ozone layer are mostly out of use in air-conditioning, but replacements used in developing countries, like India, are potent agents of global warming. [LINK]
It is cheaper than a car, and arguably more life-changing in steamy
regions, where cooling can make it easier for a child to study or a
worker to sleep. But as air-conditioners sprout from windows and storefronts across the
world, scientists are becoming increasingly alarmed about the impact of
the gases on which they run. All are potent agents of global warming.
Air-conditioning sales are growing 20 percent a year in China and India,
as middle classes grow, units become more affordable and temperatures
rise with climate change. The potential cooling demands of upwardly
mobile Mumbai, India, alone have been estimated to be a quarter of those of the United States.
Air-conditioning gases are regulated primarily though a 1987 treaty called the Montreal Protocol,
created to protect the ozone layer. It has reduced damage to that vital
shield, which blocks cancer-causing ultraviolet rays, by mandating the
use of progressively more benign gases. The oldest CFC coolants,
which are highly damaging to the ozone layer, have been largely
eliminated from use; and the newest ones, used widely in industrialized
nations, have little or no effect on it.
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