In countries such as the United States, Australia, and Japan, the hot, sticky summer months are made bearable by the blast of cool air provided by humming air conditioners.
But in large parts of Europe, the solution is often decidedly low-tech: close the shades, turn on the fan, and keep plenty of ice water within reach.
According to the US Department of Energy, about 90% of people living in America have air conditioning in their home. In Europe, which has a similar climate, the figure is only 20%, although this varies across the continent. In a sunny southern country like Spain, almost half of all homes have cooling facilities, while in Germany it is only around 6%.
There is a good reason for this. Until recently, in many European countries, especially in the North, air conditioning was not seen as a necessity.
Summers have always been hot – what has changed?
Hot weather was always a part of summer in Europe, but now extreme heat waves – persistent high temperatures that threaten infrastructure, ecosystems and human health – are increasingly becoming the norm.
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has shown that extreme heat events are increasing faster than climate models predict, especially in Western Europe.
Recent analysis from Climometer, a European research partnership that analyzes extreme weather events, showed that temperatures in June 2026 were about 2 to 4 degrees Celsius (3.6 to 7.2 Fahrenheit) warmer than similar conditions during the latter half of the 20th century.
Tommaso Alberti, an Italian researcher affiliated with Climometer, said in a statement that these dangerous conditions are “causing an increase in demand for electricity for cooling.”
Demand for air conditioners and cooling units in Germany is set to increase by 75% between 2019 and 2024 – the hottest year on record. Eurovent, the industry association for heating, ventilation, cooling and refrigeration, has also seen “stable” growth rates in recent years.
Despite this trend, opposition to air conditioning continues in Europe, said Stijn Renneboog, deputy secretary general of Eurovent.
“Among the tips to stay cool circulating on social media, I still see advice to avoid using air conditioning,” he told DW in an email.
“Coolness is still often seen as a luxury,” he said, adding that hot conditions pose a serious threat to public health. “Thousands of heat-related deaths occur in Europe every year.”
European homes are not built for heat or AC
Most Europeans feel that their homes do not help them stay cool during the summer. Many houses and apartments in Germany and other parts of Northern Europe were designed to retain heat during the cold months, but not for maximum cooling when hot.
A recent study found that almost half of respondents across the EU turned to better shading and insulation to escape the heat. But many people are now considering air conditioners also.
“The days of low AC penetration in Europe are coming to an end,” Helge Brinkmann, associate director at Boston Consulting Group, which specializes in green energy and the environment, said in a September 2025 industry analysis.
Installing air conditioning in older European residences can be a challenge. “While cooling technology is easily built into new residential and commercial properties, retrofitting existing infrastructure is less straightforward,” the analysis said. Major renovations may allow the installation of new systems, but historic cities across Europe often have “additional regulatory and aesthetic hurdles to overcome.”
Additionally, many tenants are prevented from installing cooling units in their rental homes due to restrictive regulations, or they are unwilling to make a large investment in someone else’s property. This leaves people in countries where almost half the population rent – like Germany, Denmark and Austria – settling for less efficient cooling options.
Cooling ‘a serious social and public health issue’
Cost is another factor that prevents many Europeans from installing air conditioning. Rising energy prices are making it expensive to escape the heat, and 38% of people in an EU-wide survey said they could not afford to keep their home cool.
A study conducted in 2020 by researchers in Italy looked at how global warming is driving an increase in air conditioning in temperate countries such as France, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands, suggesting that lower income groups will be disproportionately affected as cooling becomes increasingly necessary.
Renneboog said that while heating is considered a basic need in the winter, it’s a different story for cooling. “It is perhaps appropriate to have a similar recognition that the inability to safely cool buildings in summer is also becoming a serious social and public health issue,” he said.
Air conditioners could make global warming worse
Environmental concerns have also slowed the adoption of air conditioners in Europe.
The total amount of energy needed to cool homes and other spaces in the EU has been rising steadily over the past decade, especially since 2020. The latest data from Eurostat, the European statistics office, shows that energy used to heat buildings fell slightly in 2024, but cooling used 15.3% more energy than a year earlier.
Globally, cooling contributes about 10% of annual electricity demand. But much of that energy is still produced from polluting, planet-warming fossil fuels, making the problem worse. And various studies have shown that AC use can increase the outdoor temperature by several degrees, creating a vicious cycle.
Renneboog said Europe’s move toward cleaner energy sources is helping curb the emissions problem, and said energy demand patterns are changing.
“Europe is seeing seasonal changes: cooling degree days are increasing, while heating degree days are decreasing. In other words, yes, we will spend more energy on cooling, but we are likely to spend less on heating,” he said.
Is there any alternative to air conditioner?
There are also green alternatives to the standard air conditioner.
“New buildings could be designed to limit their cooling needs, they could favor alternatives to air conditioning systems,” said Jean-Sébastien Brocq of the Institute for European Energy and Climate Policy, amid a heat wave in July 2025.
These options include building designs that improve cross ventilation and use materials that reduce heat retention, and improved solar shading such as shutters, awnings and roof overhangs. Heat pumps, although generally more expensive, are an effective way of both heating and cooling a home and can help reduce carbon emissions.
Greenery and water features also help keep cities cooler and reduce the urban heat island effect, and many cities have focused on shared solutions such as misting systems and public cooling centers. In places like Paris, Stockholm, and Copenhagen, district cooling centralizes air conditioning by using chilled water and underground pipes to cool multiple buildings instead of just one.
Smart technologies that include sensors and AI technology can make new air conditioners up to 40% more efficient by reducing temperatures and emissions.
Edited by: Tamsin Walker