With temperatures exceeding all records, the world’s climate catastrophe is becoming worse. However, scientists have created a new, highly reflective glass coating that could help slow down the planet’s rapid warming.

The coating, which is a slurry-like mixture of cheap glass and aluminum oxide particles, may, in theory, reflect a lot of sunlight off of anything it is painted on, such building roofs and roadways.

It can reflect up to 99 percent of solar light back into space, according to laboratory testing. If successful, the “cooling glass” may offer a viable means of bringing down global temperatures, according to the scientists who created it.

“This ‘cooling glass’ is more than a new material — it’s a key part of the solution to climate change,” Xinpeng Zhao, a research scientist at the University of Maryland who led the new study, said in a statement. “This could change the way we live and help us take better care of our home and our planet.”

The Earth cools itself by releasing heat into space, especially on clear nights, like most surfaces do. However, the recently discovered coating speeds up this process by reflecting sunlight within what is known as the atmospheric transparency window. That window refers to a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that can efficiently use space as a heat sink by passing through Earth’s atmosphere and out into space without raising the planet’s temperature.

People would subsequently be less likely to use air conditioners as a result of cooler weather brought on by the glass’s cooling effect and/or other climate change mitigation measures, Zhao told Space.com.
According to a recent study, the team’s new ceramic-based paint is unique in that it can withstand temperatures as high as 1,832 degrees Fahrenheit (1,000 degrees Celsius), water, and even fires. It is available in four hues and is meant to last for at least 30 years.

According to Aaswath Raman, a materials science professor at the University of California, Los Angeles who was not involved in the new work, “in that sense, I think this is certainly an interesting, potentially effective strategy,” Space.com reported.

The novel coating’s ultimate challenge is to “compete with a range of existing approaches that have also shown potential for long durability.”