When air-conditioning works, it works too well. New research involving the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) and the Singapore-ETH Centre (SEC) finds that widespread reliance on private cooling may be creating a paradox in cities: the more effectively households cool themselves indoors, the less urgency they feel to support the broader interventions that could bring down heat for everyone.
The researchers describe this pattern as “behavioural insulation”. Because air-conditioning manages the discomfort of heat so effectively, it may also make the urgency to act — whether by changing habits or backing shared solutions like urban greening and shading — feel less pressing.
The paper, " Private cooling, urban heat, and the limits of collective climate action in tropical cities" , published in Sustainable Cities and Society , is part of the Climate Resilient Citizenry project — a multi-institutional collaboration examining how urban residents perceive and respond to climate risk.
Singapore offers a useful early view of a challenge that many warming cities may soon face. It is dense, tropical and highly urbanised, with widespread access to air-conditioning. As cooling spreads to other fast-warming cities, how households respond to heat could shape electricity demand, urban planning priorities and public support for climate measures in ways that are only beginning to be understood.
To understand this pattern, the research team analysed survey responses from 967 adults across 416 households in Singapore, together with spatial heat indicators and household electricity consumption records.
The results show a clear divide. People who felt more affected by heat were more likely to discuss climate issues and encourage others to act. But this rarely translated into lower household energy use. Those who relied most on air-conditioning tended to consume more electricity and were less likely to adopt energy-saving habits.
“One of the key findings is that experiencing heat does not automatically translate into lower-energy behaviour or stronger collective climate action,” said Dr Natalia Borzino, lead author and Postdoctoral Researcher at SEC. “People may become more climate-aware and more vocal about heat, while still relying heavily on energy-intensive cooling to manage daily life.”
Heavy cooling use also dampened support for public heat mitigation measures such as neighbourhood shading and greening, even as the same households were willing to spend more on their own indoor comfort. The study further finds that hotter neighbourhoods consume more electricity primarily through increased cooling use — positioning air-conditioning as the key pathway through which urban heat drives rising energy demand.
Taken together, the findings point to something more systemic than individual indifference — a gradual drift in which widespread private cooling may weaken the behavioural conditions associated with support for collective climate action.
“Heat is not just a temperature challenge. It is also a behavioural and planning challenge,” said Research Assistant Professor Samuel Chng, Head of the Urban Psychology Lab at LKYCIC, SUTD. “If cities rely too heavily on private cooling, they risk locking in higher energy demand while weakening the collective support needed for wider urban heat solutions.”
The researchers are not arguing against air-conditioning — in hot and humid cities, cooling is essential for comfort, health and wellbeing. The implication is that cities cannot afford to treat it as the default answer to rising heat.
Reducing that dependence means tackling urban temperatures more directly — through shading, greening, better ventilation, reflective materials and climate-sensitive design — so that keeping people cool and building collective resilience pull in the same direction.
“This research shows that adaptation is not just a technical or infrastructural issue. It is fundamentally social and behavioural,” said Professorial Research Fellow Dr Harvey Neo, lead Principal Investigator of the Climate Resilient Citizenry project. “The challenge for cities is to design systems where individual adaptation and collective resilience reinforce each other, rather than move in opposite directions.”
As air-conditioning becomes more accessible across warming regions, the Singapore findings carry a wider relevance. Private cooling may shape electricity demand and, more broadly, how residents think about their share of the climate problem — highlighting the growing importance of city-scale heat mitigation alongside private cooling adaptation.
Sustainable Cities and Society