French Open spectators cool off at a misting station during the summer’s first major heatwave in May.Benoit Tessier\/Reuters<\/p>\n
That was just a warmup, so to speak. After barely two weeks of relief, temperatures peaked even higher during a second heatwave that began June 17. By the time it was over two weeks later, Paris and the rest of France had hit their hottest daytimes temperatures since records started being kept in 1947. <\/p>\n
Other western European countries, as well as Britain, suffered similarly tropical conditions. The current suspected death count for both heatwaves, measured in excess deaths compared to the norm, is said to be as many as 25,000 across the continent. <\/p>\n
The third heatwave jolted Europe, France included, this week. It contributed to an unprecedented forest fire in Fontainebleau just outside Paris. And August lies ahead. <\/p>\n
Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n A firefighter works to extinguish the wildfire in France’s Fontainebleau forest on July 13. The heatwave that settled over much of the country contributed to the massive blaze.Stephane Mahe\/Reuters<\/p>\n North Americans watching from afar often ask one question: Don\u2019t people have air conditioning over there? <\/p>\n The answer is, no, they don\u2019t. In much of temperate Europe, air conditioning has long been seen as unnecessary, or worse: as a wasteful, ugly, environment-harming American affectation. In Paris, as few as 5 per cent of homes have air-conditioning; country-wide, the percentage is 25. Even more shocking to North Americans, most schools and hospitals in France lack central AC.<\/p>\n That gallic resistance to mechanical cooling is melting away this summer, and air-conditioning has become a new front in France\u2019s culture wars. The debate is centred on a straightforward issue: is the state responsible for making sure that people\u2019s homes are safe to live in as the climate heats up? <\/p>\n After all, in Canada and France, it is illegal in winter for a landlord or a utility to turn off the heating in homes where rent or bills go unpaid. If it is accepted wisdom that all people should have access to safe temperatures in the cold months, it doesn\u2019t take a big leap to come to the same conclusion in summer. It\u2019s a question many countries are grappling with, but nowhere is the issue better illustrated than in Paris.<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Tourists shield themselves from the sun near the base of the Eiffel Tower, where a sign announces early closing due to the heatwave in Paris on July 11.DIMITAR DILKOFF\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n The (little) dog days of summer<\/b><\/p>\n In France, a heatwave is \u201cune canicule,\u201d which comes from the Latin word for \u201clittle dog\u201d. Canicula was the Latin nickname for Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. Sirius rises and sets with the sun in the hottest months, hence the English term \u201cdog days of summer.\u201d<\/p>\n Parisians were given a cruel lesson in the dangers of la canicule in 2003, when Europe was struck by a horrific heatwave in early August. Daytime temperatures in Paris were over 40 C for two weeks and barely fell to 25 C at night. <\/p>\n Paris and its suburbs saw nearly 5,000 deaths, the worst for a single d\u00e9partement (an administrative region) in a country where 15,000 people died in total. The French government responded with a colour-coded warning system and measures to keep track of vulnerable people, such as the elderly and sick, living in apartments and seniors\u2019 residences.<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n People cool off in the fountain at the Place de la Concorde in Paris, in August, 2003, during the deadly heatwave that swept across France.THOMAS COEX\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Since then, Paris has been hit with heatwaves most summers, and the systems in place have helped limit the number of deaths. But never before has the city registered three heatwaves by mid-July. <\/p>\n Right-wing populist politicians have seized the moment and are promising the air-conditioning equivalent of a chicken in every pot. The Rassemblement National party, eyeing the French presidential election next April, says it will put AC in every school and hospital, and will also provide \u20ac20 billion euros ($32-billion) in interest-free loans that people can use to install AC in as many as 40-million households.<\/p>\n The left and centre are accusing the populist right, which has never supported efforts to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, of naked opportunism. <\/p>\n Critics on the left say mechanical cooling increases the consumption of electricity, leaks refrigerant gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect, and pumps hot air into streets, exacerbating the heating that occurs in urban environments.<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a>Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n The potential proliferation of air-conditioning units conflicts with the desire to protect the aesthetic and architectural integrity of Paris. Politicians have said keeping shutters closed and improving building insulation are better ways to deal with extreme heat.MARTIN LELIEVRE\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Paris\u2019s left-wing mayor Emmanuel Gr\u00e9goire went as far as saying in June that \u201cindividual air conditioning is a scourge\u201d that contributes to global warming.<\/p>\n There is also a very French desire to preserve the architectural integrity of Paris by not marring it with the sight of air-conditioning units on every balcony or hanging off walls in courtyards. <\/p>\n Politicians on the left say it is far better to improve insulation in walls and windows, keep shutters closed and curtains drawn during the day to block the heat of the sun, and to open windows at night to let in the cool air.<\/p>\n Fair enough. That\u2019s what just about everyone does now. But it makes for an uncomfortable existence. Paris\u2019s older apartments retain heat; after seven days of daytime temperatures of 39 C and nighttime temperatures of 26 C, it\u2019s not unusual to go to bed in an apartment with an interior temperature of 35 C.<\/p>\n Parisians take it in stride, because the heat wave always ends. Just drink gallons of water, buy an electric fan and wait it out. Why pay for air-conditioning that you might only need a few days a year, and that is environmentally harmful?<\/p>\n People shop for fans and air conditioning units at a store in Paris amid France’s first major heatwave of the year in late May.<\/p>\n Tom Nicholson\/Reuters<\/p>\n An air conditioning exhaust pipe emerges from a restaurant in Paris in July. As attitudes toward air-conditioning changes in line with rising temperatures, the sight of mechanical cooling units may become more frequent in the city.<\/p>\n JOEL SAGET\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n Still, the French government has begun to recognize that AC will have to be part of the solution to a warming planet. France announced it would deliver 30,000 mobile AC units to hospitals. It also slashed the sales tax on reversible heat pumps that meet European efficiency criteria, while maintaining the tax on the less expensive and easier to install mobile units that sell out instantly during the first heatwave of every summer.<\/p>\n Even the Green Party in France has dropped its dogmatic opposition to air-conditioning when it comes to hospitals. The next question, there and in other countries like Canada, will be: When does air-conditioning go from being a personal luxury to a necessity?<\/p>\n Cooling the rhetoric<\/b><\/p>\n AC is not, you will forgive the term, a polarizing issue in Canada. Installing it is uncontroversial. The far greater concern is heating. Governments offer rebates to owners and builders who install efficient systems that cut down on energy use.<\/p>\n Still, more and more Canadian households have air-conditioning or heat pumps to control the temperature in summer. According to Statistics Canada, 68.3 per cent of households had mechanical cooling in 2025, compared with 64 per cent in 2021.<\/p>\n There is an income divide, however. Only 55 per cent of households with annual incomes under $50,000 have AC, compared to 82 per cent for households earning $150,000 or more. <\/p>\n Couple this with the fact that, in the United States \u2013 where 90 per cent of households have mechanical cooling \u2013 there is overwhelming evidence<\/a> that air-conditioning saves lives during heatwaves, and it becomes clear that governments cannot ignore the issue.<\/p>\n This became evermore apparent in British Columbia in 2021, when a prolonged heat dome led to the preventable deaths of 619 people \u2013 most of them from exposure to high indoor temperatures created by a lack of air-conditioning, according to a coroner\u2019s report.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/resizer\/v2\/CWPKI7D3Z5HMVCCP4FVVIWG5VM.JPG?auth=0d4cd68b1dbb2600fa5e385d5808fde91cbfe35ec4dc2a53a13e56abcc2070b6&width=600&height=400&quality=80&smart=true\")
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