Europe’s deadly – As southern England and Wales bake under record-breaking heat, European leaders are arguing over whether air-conditioning is a lifesaving necessity or a climate mistake—at the exact moment heat is killing people and straining the power grid.
Last week, in Aberdeen on Scotland’s northeast coast, the temperature was a crisp 54 degrees. Eight days later, heat turned up across southern England and Wales, with temperatures in London nearing 100 degrees.
The consequences arrived quickly. Schools closed. Trains were canceled or delayed. Some hospitals halted elective procedures. The opening session of London Climate Action Week—focused on improving extreme heat governance—was called off after Britain’s national weather service. the Met Office. issued a “red warning.”.
For Kemi Badenoch, the leader of Britain’s Conservative Party, the timing is an uncomfortable mirror. She championed the country’s fossil fuel industry in Aberdeen. saying. “The war on oil and gas must end. ” and “We need to get Britain drilling again.” Her party’s success in a special election in Aberdeen adds a political edge to the question now being asked across Britain: how does a platform built around faster extraction square with a planet already feeling like it’s burning?.
Badenoch has presented herself as a “net zero skeptic.” A spokesman for her did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But in an interview this week with the right wing broadcaster GB News. Badenoch said it was “important that we do what we can to tackle climate change. ” while insisting that the country’s climate approaches were not “actually sorting anything out. ” and that they “have done is send jobs and emissions to other countries.”.
The heat’s toll is no longer abstract. In Italy. five people have died from the heat. according to the country’s main news agency. including several who were working outside and a homeless man. In France, at least 40 people have drowned, many of them teenagers swimming in unsupervised areas. London’s ambulance service said it responded to its highest ever number of life-threatening emergencies on Wednesday.
Against that backdrop, the argument spreading through European politics is increasingly specific: air-conditioning.
In a crisis. the pitch from right-wing politicians is often a short-term fix that many people can already picture—installing air-conditioning units in European homes. schools. public buildings and hospitals. The logic is simple: when heat becomes life-threatening, comfort can be protection. But critics say the same units can feed the warming they’re meant to counter. especially when electricity is not fully renewable.
That tension has sharpened in France. Far-right politicians who have advocated cutting net zero initiatives see the heat wave as both an accusation and an opportunity—arguing the government has failed to make the country more resilient. and turning the debate into a culture fight against the hard left. which has often opposed air-conditioning on environmental grounds.
Marine Le Pen. the leader of the National Rally party. pledged on Friday: “If I am elected president. I will put into place a massive air-conditioning plan. ” “starting in places with the most vulnerable populations.” Le Pen argues air-conditioning units do not exacerbate global warming. saying that “when environmentalists don’t want something. they twist the studies. they pull things out of context.”.
Some of the physics are hard to ignore. New air-conditioning units have become greener in recent years. but they still contribute to climate change by guzzling electricity. which—if it doesn’t come from renewable sources—adds emissions. The units also pump hot air outside buildings as they push cold air inside, intensifying the already hot conditions outdoors. And they put enormous strain on Europe’s aging electrical grid, particularly when systems run full blast.
Still, the political debate is not just about whether air-conditioning works. It’s also about what kind of long-term fix is acceptable when the danger arrives now.
In the context of northern Europe’s traditionally mild. temperate climate. some left-wing and green parties have opposed air-conditioning and instead favored renovating buildings with architectural fixes to keep them cool during heat waves. But the dangers to health posed by this week’s heat wave are piling pressure on that approach. pushing some voters and politicians to rethink what they can justify in the name of climate purity.
In the Belgian city of Ghent, run mostly by left-of-center politicians, the municipal website this week discouraged citizens from using air-conditioners. It said, “the best air-conditioner is a tree,” advising residents to use fans and to request a free tree to plant outside their houses.
Maurits Vande Reyde, a right-wing member of the Flemish Parliament, responded on social media on Tuesday. He wrote: “It is absurd that all governments in our country. under pressure from left-green mumbo-jumbo. advise against the use of air-conditioning.” He added: “The most efficient and best solution. How many deaths would the government already have on its conscience with this kind of absurd advice?”.
After The New York Times sent a request for comment, Ghent removed wording that read “avoid air-conditioners,” replacing it with the phrase “cool smartly.”
Thomas Dierckens, a spokesman for the mayor of Ghent, said in a written comment that the city was not against air-conditioning, noting that it had installed 30 portable air-conditioners into day care centers this week. “Health always comes first” in a heat wave, he said.
In France, Marine Tondelier, the head of the Green Party, acknowledged on Tuesday that she was “breaking a taboo” when she said that “there are places where we can no longer do without air-conditioning.”
In London, Sadiq Khan, the center-left Labour Party mayor, said on Thursday that air-conditioning would need to be installed in the capital’s schools, offices and hospitals. He warned that London needed to “act now” to strengthen its resilience ahead of worse heat waves to come.
At the European level, Terry Reintke, co-president of the European Parliament’s Green group, said in an interview that some air-conditioning was necessary alongside longer-term solutions like planting more green spaces.
Britain and Europe may not agree on the right speed or the right mix. but they largely agree on the urgency to act. Unlike the United States, where climate change politics have become more divided during Mr. Trump’s terms, there is still broad support in Britain and Europe for taking action to tackle global warming.
In a survey last year by Eurobarometer. the European Union’s public opinion service. about 85 percent of respondents said they consider climate change a serious problem for the world. and action against climate change a public-health priority. A survey in the United States last year showed a much smaller proportion of people who even believed climate change was happening.
A wide body of research on European voters has found extreme weather events linked to climate change can influence politics. but they do not guarantee a backlash to climate-skeptic parties. A 2025 study by Jessica Haak. a political scientist at the University of Hamburg. found that abnormally high temperatures in Germany delivered a small but meaningful increase in support for the Green Party. suggesting a link between extreme heat and support for climate action. A similar study in 2022 by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research found voters in areas affected by heat waves. droughts and other environmental events were more likely to support European politicians who backed climate action—but only when the economy was strong. The authors wrote that “In the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2007—2008. for example. ” “a substantial reduction in environmental concerns was observable across all European regions.”.
Europe’s far-right parties have tried to tap economic concerns and focus attention on burdensome regulations. Governments are scrambling to respond to extreme weather, from floods to heat, and that can become fertile ground for voter frustration.
Last month. Nicola Procaccini. the co-chairman of the right-leaning European Conservatives and Reformists Group in the European Parliament. said: “instead of focusing on adaptation to climate change. investing resources in the protection of territories and people. the choice was made to sacrifice the growth of the European economy and support for people. especially the most vulnerable. on the altar of ‘climate mitigation.’”.
Scientists say both adaptation and mitigation are urgently required. Prof. Hayley Fowler of Newcastle University said in an emailed comment: “Heat waves are becoming more frequent. longer and hotter with climate change. as a direct result of the fossil fuels we are releasing as a society.” She added: “Our current climate is the least extreme we will live in our lifetimes. and certainly until we reach net zero. and we need to adapt urgently.”.
This week, environmentalists in London had been hoping the weather itself would sharpen the message. “There is irony in the fact that a London Climate Action Week event had to be canceled due to extreme heat in a temperate. wealthy country. ” said Chris Anderson. head of climate risk and resilience at Practical Action. an environmental group. “We’re fully in favor of the decision for the well-being of attendees and panelists,” he said. “but it shows that extreme weather is becoming unpredictable and moving faster than people can adapt. even in the richest countries.”.
In the end, the heat wave is forcing a decision that feels less like ideology and more like triage. Whether air-conditioning is framed as temporary relief. a climate trap. or a bridge to better resilience. it is suddenly central to how European leaders explain care—during the moments when care can be the difference between surviving the day and not making it to tomorrow.
Europe heat wave air-conditioning debate climate policy London Climate Action Week Kemi Badenoch Marine Le Pen Ghent tree advice Sadiq Khan