Country-level energy demand for cooling has increased over the past two decades

Cooling degree days provide a simple indicator to represent how temperature drives energy demand for cooling. We investigate, at country level, the changes in cooling degree days worldwide in a recent twenty-one-year period starting in 2000. A new database, jointly generated by CMCC and IEA based on ERA5 reanalysis' global gridded data, is used for the analysis. In contrast to the existent literature, the factors of population-weighting and humidity are considered, which affect the magnitude and the spatial distribution of these changes. Annual tendencies show a general increase of cooling degree days over the different countries, fostering more energy consumption for cooling demand, as confirmed by some regional studies. We also focus on the temporal clustering, to measure if peaks occur evenly random or tend to cluster in shorter periods. We stress that including humidity is important both for general tendencies and clustering. India, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam represent the emerging countries where this effect is stronger. Energy demand for cooling has increased over the past two decades, and intense events are often clustered in time, suggests a country level analysis of cooling degree days based on reanalysis data.

Automated summary

Cooling degree days are used as a simple indicator to represent the impact of temperature on energy demand for cooling. This study investigates the changes in cooling degree days worldwide over a twenty-one-year period from 2000, considering factors such as population-weighting and humidity. The analysis reveals a general increase in cooling degree days across countries, indicating a rise in energy consumption for cooling. The study also highlights the importance of including humidity in understanding the overall trends and clustering of intense events.