As Europe’s Heat Waves Intensify, France Bickers About Air-Conditioning

The culture wars have come for air-conditioning, at least in France.

In July, as a heat wave broiled much of Europe, feelings about air-conditioning suddenly became a political litmus test.

Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader in France, declared that she would deploy a “major air-conditioning equipment plan” around the country if her nationalist party eventually came to power. Marine Tondelier, the head of France’s Green party, scoffed at Ms. Le Pen’s idea and, instead, suggested solutions to warming temperatures that included “greening” cities and making buildings more energy efficient.

An opinion essay in Le Figaro, a conservative newspaper, defended air-conditioning because “making our fellow citizens sweat limits learning, reduces working hours and clogs up hospitals.” Libération, a left-wing daily, countered such arguments, writing that the technology was “an environmental aberration that must be overcome” because it blows hot air onto streets and guzzles up precious energy.

“Is air-conditioning a far-right thing?” one talk show asked provocatively, reflecting how divisive the issue had become.

While France’s heated discussion of air-conditioning cooled along with the temperatures in the weeks that followed, increasingly hot summers in Europe mean that the issue is not going anywhere.

Decades ago, bickering over air-conditioning might have seemed strange in Europe, where there was historically little need for it and where keeping homes warm is still a top concern.

But times are changing fast.

An analysis of daily temperature data from Copernicus, part of the European Union’s space program, shows that much of Europe is now experiencing longer periods of severe heat than it was just 40 years ago. So while many derided air-conditioning for years as an unnecessary — and awfully American — amenity, it is now increasingly seen as a necessity to survive scorching summers.

“Air-conditioning still scares some — many still have in mind countries like the United States, where homes and shops are extremely conditioned,” said Baudouin de la Varende, the co-founder of Ithaque, a French consulting firm that helps households with energy-efficient renovations. But even he said that weatherproofing would help only so much in the coming decades.

“I’m a little saddened that the debate is often boiled down to for or against air-conditioning,” he added. “Most people are in the middle: Air-conditioning is a useful tool.”

Some of the debate is political posturing. Look beyond the sniping on social media, and there is broad agreement in France that air-conditioning is necessary in spaces like retirement homes, hospitals and schools. More than 1,800 schools had to close during the worst of last month’s heat wave. Few people are clamoring for a cooling unit in every home.

“Air-conditioning is not black or white,” Agnès Pannier-Runacher, France’s environment minister, recently told reporters. “We need air-conditioning to give vulnerable people some respite. But we mustn’t do it everywhere.”

Despite her modulated tones, the public debate has focused on what air-conditioning represents. Those who see it as an evil, mainly on the left, say it is another example of leaders’ addressing the symptoms of climate change rather than dealing with its underlying causes.

They argue that it is an energy-hungry technology that must be deployed sparingly for those who really need it, while society puts in place solutions that do not exacerbate global warming.

“Air-conditioning is what you’d call a maladaptation,” said Dan Lert, the deputy mayor in charge of green transition policies in Paris. “To fix a real problem, you make it worse.”

“There is no reason to cling to ideological dogmatism and oppose concrete solutions,” a group of conservative lawmakers allied with Ms. Le Pen wrote in a bill proposed last month that would make it mandatory to air-condition certain public spaces.

And fans of air-conditioning argue that solutions like sun-blocking shutters will get you only so far in the years to come.

Much of southern Europe now experiences more than two months each year when daily high temperatures exceed 85 degrees. Madrid, Spain’s capital, has had an average of 63 days above 85 degrees in recent years, up from 29 days per year in the early 1980s.

In many places, the heat is not just longer-lasting but also more intense. Forty years ago, temperatures in Madrid rarely climbed above 90 degrees, but in the past five years, a typical summer has included 40 days above 90 degrees.

Whether cultural resistance to air-conditioning in France will persist in such conditions remains to be seen.

Perhaps no one displays that ambivalence better than Christian Meyer, the head of a company near Strasbourg that installs air-conditioning units. Despite having a vested interest in promoting air-conditioning, he was recently quoted in a local newspaper saying that he wasn’t a fan and that he didn’t use it himself. (“The best air-conditioning is a well-insulated house,” he is quoted as saying.)

For now, as the arguments continue, the government’s official heat-related advice takes a middle road, of sorts. Air-conditioning is on its list of options to keep a home cool. But the guidelines warn that it is “a solution that should be considered only after all other options have been exhausted.”