[asoneth]

Due to the Jevons paradox making air conditioning more efficient will most likely increase energy consumption.

Whereas if you increase the price of energy (e.g. carbon fees) then you will reduce consumption and incentivize more efficient air conditioning as a side effect.

Unfortunately while the former is counterproductive the latter is politically unpalatable so we'll end up either doing nothing or making the problem worse.

[RcouF1uZ4gsC]

> Due to the Jevons paradox making air conditioning more efficient will most likely increase energy consumption.

Good. That means more people now have access to it and it is a good thing.

Another example is clean water. If clean water is abundant, people will use it for more drinking and cooking and bathing. That is a good thing.

[asoneth]

Absolutely. More efficient technologies will make life more pleasant for many people. On balance I think this is a net win for humanity and am in favor of ongoing work in this area.

However, I should have been more specific when I said making air conditioning more efficient is counterproductive. I solely meant counterproductive towards the assumed goal of decarbonization in response to the prior comment's claim that "finding efficient ways to use our energy" is a viable strategy to address climate change.

Without pairing that efficiency with real solutions like putting a price on negative externalities, increasing efficiency is significantly more likely to increase overall energy consumption than to decrease it.