Geoff Russ: Europe’s irrational allergy to air conditioning

People try to cool off in a fountain in the centre of Tilburg on June 25, 2026 during a heatwave in Europe. Photo by ROB ENGELAAR / ANP / AFP via Getty Images

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LONDON — By the middle of last week, Britain and Western Europe were hot enough to melt Samuel de Champlain’s statue. In London, the air was damper than a sauna, and in France, the pavement shimmered and liquified. People literally had their lives cut short by extreme temperatures that reached 40 C, with little breeze to lessen the effect.

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Through no fault of its own, since nobody can predict the weather, the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) held its annual conference at Olympia London, on Hammersmith Road, from June 23 to 25, right in the middle of the heatwave.

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ARC spared no expense, and it was a grand show, hosting about 4,000 people from more than 75 countries. The content was excellent, serious and civilized, and I was lucky to attend. As for the physical experience, that was another matter entirely.

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There was plenty of lemonade and water, with the jugs constantly refilled as people lined up to rehydrate. The air conditioning inside Olympia London worked, but modestly.

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Thousands of people filled the halls in dark, heavy suits, humbled by the patches of sweat on the backs of their shirts. The limits of deodorant were tested.

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The heatwave that swept Europe in late June exposed the shortcomings of elite politicians who think mediocre energy policy and virtue are indistinguishable. England may have had its warmest June on record, and Britain, on the whole, endured the second-hottest June since 1884.

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During the heatwave on the London Underground, temperatures of 39.4 C were reported on the Central line, 37.2 C on the Jubilee line, 36.4 C on the Bakerloo line and 33.6 C on the Victoria line.

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Across the English Channel, France’s public health agency reported that about 1,000 additional people had died during the heat’s worst days, including children. This is why Europe’s refusal to embrace the basic comforts of air conditioning is not humorous but outright deadly.

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The well-to-do of Paris and Brussels can lecture the world all they want on why AC is evil, while failing to ensure people have cool bedrooms. In an astonishing act of hypocrisy, the European Commission shut down the air conditioning on the first seven floors of its 13-storey headquarters in Brussels, while leaving it operational on the higher floors where Commission President Ursula von der Leyen works, alongside other senior officials. So it is AC for me, but not for thee.

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The International Energy Agency (IEA) has estimated that affordable access to cooling saved roughly 190,000 lives a year from 2019 to 2021. As mundane as it may seem to Canadians, many of whom can take it for granted, widespread AC is the mark of a mature and serious civilization.