The Taxonomy of Climate Change: How Rising Temperatures Unequally Impact Nations’ Discomfort

The aim of this paper is to analyse the extent to which the increase in global temperatures affects both the level of citizens' discomfort and energy consumption. We use countries' yearly average temperatures, the summation of cooling and heating degree-days, and primary energy consumption as the variables of interest on a sample of 67 countries over the period 1986-2016. The descriptive analysis reveals that the increase in global temperatures is widespread but shows distinct geographical patterns. Specifically, the increase is most pronounced in Europe and least significant in the Americas, while Africa and Asia hold an intermediate position, albeit experiencing the highest levels of heat stress. Our findings reveal that higher temperatures primarily reduce discomfort levels in cooler regions, such as European countries and North America, while they predominantly increase discomfort in warmer areas of the Americas, Africa, and Asia. This phenomenon has consequences for energy consumption efficiency, generally improving for the former and worsening for the latter. From this perspective, there are winners and losers from climate change.