Europe is facing unprecedented extreme heatwaves, with frequent temperatures above 40°C breaking historical records. Sustained high temperatures have overwhelmed medical systems, disrupted transportation and industrial production, and caused a sharp rise in heat-related deaths. As heat becomes a lethal threat, Europe is caught in a fierce debate over air conditioning, struggling to balance public survival needs with energy pressure and global warming risks.
Extreme heat disrupts human body temperature regulation, triggering dehydration, electrolyte disorders and heavy burdens on cardiovascular and renal systems, often leading to fatal heatstroke and cardiovascular emergencies. According to official monitoring data, late-June heatwaves caused over 10,000 excess deaths across Europe. Germany recorded approximately 5,100 heat-related deaths, while heatwaves in England and Wales killed more than 2,700 people, nearly 60% of whom were elderly people aged over 85.
Air conditioning is the most effective way to reduce indoor temperatures and prevent heat mortality. A 2021 Lancet study confirmed that air conditioning prevented around 195,000 heat deaths among global seniors in 2019. However, Europe has extremely low cooling penetration due to its historically mild summers and massive protected historic buildings. In 2025, the air conditioning penetration rate in Europe is only 23%, far lower than 79% in China, 90% in the United States and 92% in Japan.
Escalating heat disasters have split European public opinion. Supporters argue that air conditioning is indispensable to protecting vulnerable groups and reducing fatalities, with France’s leading opposition party proposing government subsidies for household cooling equipment. Conversely, most citizens and environmental critics oppose large-scale cooling promotion. A French poll shows 78% of respondents regard air conditioning as environmentally unfriendly, as massive cooling use surges electricity consumption, overloads power grids and discharges waste heat that worsens the urban heat island effect and global warming.
Air conditioning brings notable climate side effects in both indirect power emissions and direct refrigerant leakage. Air-conditioned households consume 36% more electricity than non-air-conditioned households. In 2022, global space cooling accounted for 7% of global electricity use, generating roughly one billion tons of carbon emissions. Meanwhile, widely used HFC refrigerants carry extreme global warming potential. The common refrigerant R-410A is over 2,000 times more heat-trapping than CO₂. A Nature Communications study predicts that global air conditioning emissions will drive an extra 0.05°C of warming by 2050, with refrigerant leakage becoming the largest emission source in the future.
As Europe warms twice as fast as the global average, cooling demand has surged dramatically. During the June 2026 heatwave, air conditioner sales and electricity consumption soared across Germany, France and the UK. Every 1°C temperature rise increases France’s power load by 0.7 to 1 gigawatt. Concentrated cooling demand has triggered grid pressure, transformer failures, nuclear plant shutdowns and skyrocketing electricity prices, exposing the vulnerability of European infrastructure designed for outdated mild climate conditions.
Despite growing reliance on cooling, low-carbon solutions provide a feasible way out of the dilemma. The Kigali Amendment promotes the phase-down of high-warming refrigerants, potentially avoiding up to 0.5°C of global warming. Continuous upgrades in air conditioner energy efficiency, optimized operating habits such as raising set temperatures by 2°C, and passive building cooling including insulation, shading and natural ventilation can drastically cut cooling energy use and emissions. Urban greening and district cooling systems also effectively relieve urban heat stress.
Scholars emphasize that Europe’s air conditioning controversy is essentially “cutting off the nose to spite the face”. Cooling technology protects human lives, and the rational path is low-carbon upgrading rather than outright rejection. Meanwhile, cooling equity deserves urgent attention: only 15% of people in hot climate zones have air conditioning, leaving low-income families and elderly vulnerable groups most exposed to heat risks. As WHO officials suggest, governments must guarantee cooling access for medically needy groups and build inclusive public cooling infrastructure to adapt to the irreversible extreme heat new normal.