Paris —
France is bracing for another heatwave, but has barely recovered from the previous one. Meteorologists predict a return to the heat wave this week, raising the same question that was asked over and over again in June: Why isn’t France turning on its air conditioning?
Some are already taking things into their own hands. Dozens of people lined up outside several Lidl stores in the Paris region on Thursday, all hoping to get their hands on an air conditioning unit. In the Paris suburb of Aubervilliers, doors broke under pressure from the crowd and fights broke out among shoppers. “I saw people being trampled,” one shopper told Le Parisien newspaper. “I was in shock. I was thrown in all directions, but unfortunately I couldn’t leave with my air conditioner,” said another.
According to France’s Energy Transition Agency, only about 24% of French homes have air conditioning, up from 18% just two years ago, but still far behind the 50% in neighboring Italy.
Alexia, a 26-year-old who lives on the outskirts of Paris, said she felt depressed after learning that a new heatwave was on the way. “All the air conditioners we were considering buying were out of stock, so we rushed to buy another one before they ran out.”
Meanwhile, only 7% of French schools have air conditioning, and thousands closed last week after classroom temperatures became unbearable. Health authorities say France’s cultural resistance to AC is starting to wane, with more than 2,000 excess deaths recorded in six days during the peak heat wave in June.
To the French, AC has long been seen as ugly, noisy, unnecessary and, above all, American. There is also a long-held belief in France that breathing in conditioned air makes you sick. Instead, the French architectural tradition relied on thick stone walls and shuttered windows, passive cooling techniques that worked well during the mild summer months.
Then there are regulations. France’s reputation for red tape and bureaucratic excess applies well to the AC sector. In the 19th-century buildings that characterize the Paris skyline, residents are routinely denied permission to install external condenser units. This is because heritage regulations protect the uniform appearance of the city’s roofs and facades. Most of these buildings were built during the major remodeling of the capital by Georges-Eugène Haussmann during the reign of Napoleon III. Shared buildings require the approval of the common ownership body before a fixed unit can enter, and installations made without approval may be subject to compulsory cancellation.
Air conditioning is politically fertile ground as the 2027 presidential election approaches. Marine Le Pen’s far-right party, the National Rally, has been the most vocal supporter of AC, calling for a nationwide “plan drive” to equip every school and hospital, and $23 billion in government-guaranteed interest-free loans to help equip 30 million to 40 million households.
On the left, attitudes are divided. The Green Party, traditionally the most ardent air-conditioning skeptic, is changing its stance, with leader Marin Tonderia admitting that air conditioning is needed in at least some schools and hospitals. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the far-left party France Indomitable, warned against air conditioning, saying installing air conditioners everywhere “means causing more harm.”
The government is somewhere in the middle, approving emergency air conditioning units for hospitals while trying to avoid being seen as abandoning France’s insulation-first approach to heat. The intensity of the debate became clear on Thursday when the Green Party tabled a motion of no confidence in the government over its handling of the heat wave. The motion is unlikely to pass, but it shows how deeply politicized the issue has become.
Air conditioning resistance is also framed from an environmental perspective, based on the idea that air conditioning contributes directly to climate change through the energy it consumes. In France, this argument runs counter to the country’s energy mix. About 95% of France’s electricity comes from low-carbon sources, with nuclear power alone providing about two-thirds. Running air conditioners from the electricity grid has a fraction of the carbon cost compared to countries like Poland and Germany, where fossil fuels still make up a large proportion of electricity generation.
Intensive use of air conditioning can increase urban temperatures through waste heat. Although this is a local phenomenon and is different from global warming due to global warming, it increases inequality between those who have access to air conditioning and those who do not.
Environmentalists also argue that the battle has been reduced to a binary battle between AC and no AC, with the focus on cures rather than causes.
But for a growing number of French people, no matter how much personal efforts they make to combat the causes of climate change, there is an increasing need to address its symptoms.
