If you drive an electric car, you may also be lowering the temperature of the city in which you drive:
But as well as providing potentially carbon-free driving, electric cars emit almost 20 per cent less heat than conventional cars. This could lower city temperatures, meaning use of air conditioning would also drop, says a team led by Canbing Li from Michigan State University in East Lansing.
Using summer 2012 in the Chinese capital of Beijing as an example, the team estimates that replacing conventional cars with electric ones would reduce the heat by nearly 1 °C. That in turn would result in a reduction in air conditioning use, leading to a drop of 10,686 tonnes per day in carbon dioxide emissions (Scientific Reports, doi.org/23g).
(NewScientist 28 March 2015 – paywall)
