Europe’s brutal, deadly heat wave, the second time the continent been trapped under a heat dome this year, is finally ending after the extreme weather broke temperature records and upended daily life for nearly two weeks across the continent. Unfortunately, Europe is both by far the world’s fastest-warming region and a place where the vast majority of people didn’t need air conditioners before climate change started messing up the weather. Fewer than 20 percent of Europeans have air-conditioning, as opposed to nearly 90 percent of Americans, and while you’d think Europe’s governments and people would be rushing to fully integrate ACs into their cooling arsenal, that’s no simple task for a variety of reasons. Though air-conditioner sales continue to rise, and stores across the continent definitely sold out of them over the past few weeks, this latest heat wave has fueled a raging political debate, not to mention a feeding frenzy by bewildered critics here in the U.S. Here’s a look at some of the notable moments and arguments.

At Heatmap, Robinson Meyer goes through some facts and figures regarding the state of Europe’s air-conditioning:

Only 0.8% of European household energy use goes to space cooling. Again, for comparison, that’s about half the share of energy that goes to space cooling in Canada. (In the U.S., about 6% of household energy use goes to space cooling — and despite our warmer climate, far more energy on average goes to space heating in the winter.)That said, Europe is catching up fast, particularly in warm countries. Air conditioning penetration has more than doubled in Europe since 1990. More than half of Italian households now have air conditioning. That rate has nearly doubled since 2013, and it has grown much faster in southern Italy than northern Italy.The further north you go, the more the rates fall. About 28% of French homes and 13% of apartments have some kind of air conditioning. Only about 6% of German homes have AC.Just over 4% of British homes have air conditioning. What’s most striking to me, though, is that the elderly are most susceptible to heat-related death — and only 3% of households with someone over 75 in the UK have AC.

Only 0.8% of European household energy use goes to space cooling. Again, for comparison, that’s about half the share of energy that goes to space cooling in Canada. (In the U.S., about 6% of household energy use goes to space cooling — and despite our warmer climate, far more energy on average goes to space heating in the winter.)

That said, Europe is catching up fast, particularly in warm countries. Air conditioning penetration has more than doubled in Europe since 1990. More than half of Italian households now have air conditioning. That rate has nearly doubled since 2013, and it has grown much faster in southern Italy than northern Italy.

The further north you go, the more the rates fall. About 28% of French homes and 13% of apartments have some kind of air conditioning. Only about 6% of German homes have AC.

Just over 4% of British homes have air conditioning. What’s most striking to me, though, is that the elderly are most susceptible to heat-related death — and only 3% of households with someone over 75 in the UK have AC.

. Europe’s weird AC politics

Josh Barro tries to summarize some of it at his Substack:

Europe is not actually poor. Japan is about as wealthy as Europe, and almost all Japanese homes are air-conditioned. Europeans could afford to air-condition their homes (and their hospitals!) just like the Japanese do. But even if an individual European wants to buy an AC unit, local regulatory bodies often step in to block them. In London, the Camden Council, for example, may demand evidence that you exhausted other options on the “cooling hierarchy,” such as ceiling fans, before you’re allowed to install air conditioning. Authorities in Geneva require a doctor’s note before you can air condition your own private home. Just as importantly, many European consumers have convinced themselves that conditioned air is undesirable: some of them, honest-to-god, believe AC causes dangerous “thermal shock” (« choc thermique ») to the body and that it is safer to just suffer in the heat.There is also a political element: while leftists in the United States seek to establish a human right to air conditioning, French leftists dismiss air conditioning as right-wing. This is a reason I’m proud to be American: the American right loves to complain about the American left promising “free stuff,” but at least our right and our left are both in favor of stuff.

Europe is not actually poor. Japan is about as wealthy as Europe, and almost all Japanese homes are air-conditioned. Europeans could afford to air-condition their homes (and their hospitals!) just like the Japanese do. But even if an individual European wants to buy an AC unit, local regulatory bodies often step in to block them. In London, the Camden Council, for example, may demand evidence that you exhausted other options on the “cooling hierarchy,” such as ceiling fans, before you’re allowed to install air conditioning. Authorities in Geneva require a doctor’s note before you can air condition your own private home. Just as importantly, many European consumers have convinced themselves that conditioned air is undesirable: some of them, honest-to-god, believe AC causes dangerous “thermal shock” (« choc thermique ») to the body and that it is safer to just suffer in the heat.

There is also a political element: while leftists in the United States seek to establish a human right to air conditioning, French........

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