Yep, mostly becuase cold climates are high latitude and they don't get a ton of free BTUs from the sun all winter anyway. An exception might be lower latitude, high altitude areas (just guessing). I'd also guess that people doing white roofs are more likely to do basic air sealing and insulation retrofits.

It's just not true.

North America & Europe (temperate/cold climates) Heating dominates. In the U.S., for example, space heating accounts for roughly 2–3× more total energy than cooling on an annual basis, especially in northern and central states. In Europe, cooling demand is tiny in comparison — many countries use almost no air conditioning outside southern regions.

Why heating dominates overall:

• Large parts of North America and Europe have long winters.
• Heating often uses high-energy fuels (natural gas, oil, electricity), so the energy content is higher even if cooling is more frequent in some places.
• Cooling is mostly electric and can be efficient with modern A/C systems, so it consumes less energy per degree of temperature change compared to heating.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-023-00878-3