How ultra-white paint could help fight climate change

Apr 27, 2021

a picture of a paint roller with white paint on

White knight ... 1,000 square feet of the sunlight-reflecting paint has a cooling power of 10 kilowatts. Image: Unsplash/Yoann Siloine

Victoria Masterson

Senior Writer, Forum Agenda

Our Impact

The Big Picture

Explore and monitor how Climate Change is affecting economies, industries and global issues

A hand holding a looking glass by a lake

Crowdsource Innovation

Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:

Climate Change

Listen to the article

Have you read?

Xiulin Ruan, a Purdue University professor of mechanical engineering, holds up his lab’s sample of the whitest paint on record. Image: Purdue University/Jared Pike

Purdue University researchers have created a new formula for the world's whitest paint, making it thinner and lighter. The previous iteration (left) required a layer 0.4 millimeters thick to achieve sub-ambient radiant cooling. The new formulation can achieve similar cooling with a layer just 0.15 millimeters thick. This is thin and light enough for its radiant cooling effects to be applied to vehicles like cars, trains and airplanes. (Purdue University photo/Andrea Felicelli)

Purdue University researchers have created a new formula for the world's whitest paint, making it thinner and lighter. Image: Purdue University photo/Andrea Felicelli

Painting streets and pavements white has been shown to reduce temperatures in nearby areas. Image: Bureau of Street Services

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.