From ‘heat panic’ to ‘sacrificed at the altar’: Europe’s air conditioning culture wars heat up

Europe’s lack of air conditioning has become the focus of far-right criticism. Photograph: Filip Singer/EPAView image in fullscreenEurope’s lack of air conditioning has become the focus of far-right criticism. Photograph: Filip Singer/EPAFrom ‘heat panic’ to ‘sacrificed at the altar’: Europe’s air conditioning culture wars heat upCooling down has become political amid record highs, as experts say row is distracting from work of protecting livesAs the afternoon heat rose to a dizzying 41.

7C (107F) in eastern Brandenburg on Sunday, taking German temperatures to unprecedented highs, Mario, 65, took precautions but did not panic. Two years ago, a fierce heatwave had prompted him to buy a powerful device that few Germans own: an air conditioning unit.“The summers are slowly getting warmer,” says the retired handyman in Neuzelle on the German-Polish border, whose bungalow is now among the 6% of German homes with fixed air-conditioning.

“And as you get older, the heat gets harder to endure.”Europe is reeling from its worst heatwave on record, and as it braces for the next bout of scorching weather, its lack of air conditioning has been criticised more than any other solution that governments have been slow to promote. The emerging culture war has frustrated health experts who want more air conditioning for vulnerable groups but are wary of widespread adoption in private homes.

“Much of Europe’s investment has rightly gone into longer-term solutions like shade, insulation and cooling centres, rather than mechanical cooling,” says Hans Kluge, the head of the World Health Organization’s Europe office, which recommends nuanced adoption of air conditioning that protects those at high risk. “Both have a role.”View image in fullscreenA lightning strike over Frankfurt amid the record-breaking heatwave in Europe.

Photograph: Matías Basualdo/Zuma Press Wire/ShutterstockEfforts to adapt have brought death tolls down by 75% for the kind of heat that was considered extreme two decades ago, studies suggest, but heatwaves have in that time grown even hotter. More than 200,000 people died from heat in Europe in the last four years, according to WHO estimates, and calls for faster change are mounting. The record-breaking June heat is likely to yield a death toll in the thousands, if not low tens of thousands – well above the levels that trouble countries such as the US, which is also facing a historic heatwave but uses air conditioning to cool 90% of homes.

Expert advice to install air conditioning in the places where people need it most – hospitals, care homes, schools, and public transport – enjoys support from across the political spectrum. But in recent days, accusations that mainstream parties are blocking air conditioning to save the environment have come to dominate the debate.‘A sad inevitability’: after decades of climate warnings, why is Europe so unprepared for rising heat?

Read moreThe day after Germany’s heat record was broken, Marc Bernhard, the construction spokesperson for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), said his party would stop people being “sacrificed on the altar” of mainstream climate ideology, such as energy efficiency ratings. “Climate hysteria is leading to more heat-related deaths due to ideological construction errors such as abstaining from air conditioning.”This was a sharp move away from the party’s views just one year ago – when its health spokesperson, Martin Sichert, played down death tolls in a dismissal of the government’s “heat panic”.

It also stands in sharp contrast to AfD’s vehement rejection of heat pumps, which became an unlikely enemy of the political right three years ago.In France, meanwhile, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, which has fought renovations to make buildings energy-efficient and sought to block wind turbines and solar panels, has made air conditioning a core focus while attacking policies to stop the planet from heating.The tense debate within Europe has been inflamed by commentators in the US who hold up Europe’s lack of AC as evidence of a poor, misguided and overregulated continent.

“Europeans should just install air conditioning,” reads part of a chatbot-generated text on X that was boosted by Elon Musk and has been viewed nearly 20m times. “The American approach to summer was correct all along.”Air conditioning is the norm in rich countries from the US to Japan to Australia, but only about 15% of the 3.

5 billion people living in regions with high temperatures own one. As temperatures and incomes rise, global cooling demand is set to soar. In south-east Asia, the International Energy Agency expects the number of air conditioners to rise ninefold between 2020 and 2040 under current policies.

Experts say there are downsides to air conditioning. Expelling hot air into surrounding streets can worsen the urban heat island effect, and the energy use heightens the risk of blackouts. But its climate impact in Europe is small and set to shrink further, with the contine