page_title: Climate change mitigation
section_title: Heat pump
hierarchical_section_title: Climate change mitigation / Fossil fuel substitution / Decarbonization of heating / Heat pump
caption_attribution_description: Outside unit of heat pump, actually our own.
context_page_description: Climate change mitigation consists of actions to limit the magnitude or rate of global warming and its related effects. This generally involves reductions in human emissions of greenhouse gases.
  Fossil fuels account for about 70% of GHG emissions. The main challenge is to eliminate the use of coal, oil and gas and substitute these fossil fuels with clean energy sources. Due to massive price drops, wind power and solar photovoltaics are increasingly out-competing oil, gas and coal though these require energy storage and extended electrical grids. Mitigation or reversal of climate change, may also be achieved by replacing petrol and diesel with electric vehicles, reforestation and forest preservation, changes to agriculture practice and machinery, divestment from fossil fuel finance, democratic corporate governance reforms, changes to consumer laws, and implementing a green recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic. There is not yet technology for removing carbon dioxide from Earth's atmosphere, or climate engineering at safe or sufficient scale.
  Almost all countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
context_section_description: A modern heat pump typically produces around three times more thermal energy than electrical energy consumed, giving an effective efficiency of 300%, depending on the coefficient of performance. It uses an electrically driven compressor to operate a refrigeration cycle that extracts heat energy from outdoor air and moves that heat to the space to be warmed. In the summer months, the cycle can be reversed for air conditioning.
  In areas with average winter temperatures well below freezing, ground source heat pumps are more efficient than air-source heat pumps. The high purchase price of a heat pump compared to resistance heaters may be offset when air conditioning is also needed. 
  With a market share of 30% and clean electricity, heat pumps could reduce global CO
  2 emissions by 8% annually. Using ground source heat pumps could reduce around 60% of the primary energy demand and 90% of CO
  2 emissions of natural gas boilers in Europe in 2050 and make handling high shares of renewable energy easier. Using surplus renewable energy in heat pumps is regarded as the most effective household means to reduce global warming and fossil fuel depletion.
caption: Outside unit of an air-source heat pump
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