Children cool off in a mist fountain in central Paris amid a heatwave, on Aug. 13. Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
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Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images
PARIS — France’s latest political controversy isn’t about taxes, retirement or even cuts to summer vacation. It’s about air conditioning. As European summers get hotter, some say: Turn it on. Others say: Non, non, non.
It started on a scorching day in late June, when far-right leader Marine Le Pen went on French TV and declared: “Air conditioning saves lives.” She called it “totally absurd” that most schools and hospitals in France don’t have AC. During the heatwave, 1,800 schools had to close. If elected president, she vowed, she would install AC units across the country.
That sparked a quick response from France’s Green Party. Party leader Marine Tondelier told France Info radio she wasn’t opposed to AC in schools and hospitals — but insisted it shouldn’t be the only solution.
“The real problem is poor insulation,” Tondelier said. Her party is pushing for more investment in energy-efficient buildings.
A recent OpinionWay poll found only about half of the French public believe all public spaces should be air-conditioned.
At home, AC is rare. Just 25% of households in France have it — compared with 90% in the United States.
Economist Nicolas Bouzou says that’s a problem. “It’s very difficult to work, it’s very difficult to study, and at the end of the day, it’s very difficult to struggle against the climate crisis,” Bouzou argued in a recent op-ed for Le Figaro.
He points out that most of France’s electricity is nuclear — meaning it can power AC without adding greenhouse gas emissions. Still, AC units rely on refrigerants, which can leak and worsen climate change.
Here in Paris, eight of the 10 hottest summers on record have been in the last decade. But on a 90-degree Fahrenheit afternoon, many Parisians lounged along the Seine seeming unfazed.
Seventy-three-year-old writer Philippe Mezescase says he’s against AC. “It wastes a lot of energy. Why not just open a window?” he asks.
Others bristle at the question. Then there’s Peter Soderbaum, an Australian living in Paris. He’s baffled the French are even debating this. “In Australia, there is no discussion. You have air conditioning,” he says.
Still, he’s adapted to French habits — keeping a fan at home and blackout curtains drawn. But he believes resistance won’t last forever. “It will come, whether they want it or not.”
As France and the rest of Europe heat up, the fight over air conditioning may only grow louder. For now, the debate captures a deeper cultural divide: is cooling a wasteful luxury, or a necessity in a warming world?
