As Germany experiences its hottest summer on record, air conditioning—long treated as a luxury item—has grown from a lifestyle issue into a political flashpoint. Amid shortages caused by a rush of demand for portable units, a far-right party has argued that environmental regulations have killed people, while the green camp has countered that expanding cooling is not the answer.
According to the German Weather Service (DWD) on the 3rd, a temperature of 41.7 degrees Celsius was recorded on June 29 in Neisseaue-Neusalza in the eastern state of Brandenburg. It was the highest temperature since weather observation began, immediately surpassing the 41.5-degree record set two days earlier in Möckern-Drewitz in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. Berlin also climbed to 39 degrees, prompting police to deploy water cannon vehicles to spray water on citizens, while in Leipzig, tram tracks melted and service was fully suspended.
Europe's heat wave this year began in late May, with temperatures running 10 to 15 degrees above normal. According to EuroMOMO, a mortality monitoring network supported by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organization, excess deaths in Europe exceeded 10,000 by the end of June, with more than 9,000 of them among the elderly aged 65 and older.
The heat was so hard to bear because cooling equipment is virtually nonexistent. The penetration rate of fixed air conditioners in German households stands at only about 6 percent. That falls far short of even the European average of 20 to 23 percent. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the household air conditioner penetration rate in Europe was 23 percent last year, a wide gap compared with China (79 percent), Japan (93 percent), and the United States (90 percent).
In German residential areas, most households get through the summer by lowering shades and covering windows, and with insufficient cooling in schools, hospitals, and subways, some subways run with their windows open.
Behind the low air conditioner penetration lies building regulation. About 40 percent of homes in the European Union (EU) are buildings constructed before 1945, subject to facade preservation rules. Installing an outdoor unit is considered an alteration of a building's exterior, requiring administrative permits, along with overcoming neighbor consent and noise issues. Added to this, environmental awareness that had been cautious about expanding cooling—citing power consumption, refrigerant leaks, and urban heat islands—has established natural ventilation, insulation, and shading as the basics of heat wave response.
This summer, however, that principle collapsed. As demand shifted to portable and window units that require no permits or outdoor installations, shortages emerged. On German e-commerce channels, sales of air conditioners from the Chinese home appliance company Midea rose 37 percent from a year earlier as of May, and shipments to Spain and France jumped 108 percent.
Midea's portable products sold out on some distribution channels, and situations even arose where secondhand trading prices exceeded the price of new products. Japan's Mitsubishi Electric is also preparing measures as demand surges from Germany and elsewhere in Europe.
The debate soon spilled over into politics. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which leads in the polls, argued that "climate hysteria" had blocked air conditioner installation and increased heat wave deaths, and demanded the easing of building regulations. In contrast, the green camp countered that expanding urban green spaces and renewable energy should come first.
On social media, satire spread asking whether using a hand fan in summer makes you a Green Party supporter while using an air conditioner makes you far-right. Similar confrontations are appearing across Europe. In France, ahead of the presidential election next April, Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Rally (RN) pledged to install air conditioners on a large scale in schools and hospitals, while in Belgium, when a left-leaning local government prioritized urban greening, saying "the best air conditioner is a tree," the right countered that this was "unscientific environmentalism."
There are indications that the more the dispute grows, the more the actual causes of the heat wave and the disparity in its damage get pushed aside. Britain's BBC noted that the cooling gap between those who have cooling equipment and those who do not, and between indoor workers and outdoor workers, is emerging as a new inequality in the era of climate crisis.
The WHO's European office recommended actively expanding cooling in facilities used by vulnerable groups—such as hospitals, care facilities, schools, and public transportation—while also pursuing long-term measures such as urban green spaces and improvements in building insulation.
