Air-con has become the latest front in a culture war – but more hot air is the last thing our overheating cities need
Members of Monocle’s editorial team were in Paris last Thursday but the hottest topic in town wasn’t Fashion Week or fresh collections – it was air conditioning. As the mercury crept towards 40C, meetings were moved, school closures accommodated and cool glasses of wine sought (many at our event on Rue Bachaumont). Was there panic? Not really. The attitude on the streets was chiefly one of Gallic insouciance. “We’ll get through it,” the city’s bustling terraces seemed to murmur through the heat haze. Aspects of this come-what-may European attitude can seem charming and pleasingly pragmatic. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a problem to deal with. The city simply wasn’t designed for the temperatures that it’s now routinely enduring.
French politicians are also hot and bothered by the issue. Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella’s far-right Rassemblement National (RN) see air-con as a national health necessity, bound up with the need to expand France’s nuclear power generation. Energy independence, it seems, might mean the right to doze indoors at 18C as the grass outside is scorched and the world blithely misses its climate targets.
On the left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon of La France Insoumise has focused squarely on the cons of air-con and how it might worsen the environmental crisis, waste energy and expel more warm air into already steaming cities. Mélenchon, in a move reminiscent of those concerned with the Titanic’s post-iceberg deckchair arrangement, wants more trees, shade and passive cooling. The real answer must fall between these two extremes but requires the ambition of both.
The city, which is perhaps the world’s most beautiful, copes commendably with its climate for much of the year but heat is a pressing issue. The universally adored butter-yellow Haussmannian blocks aren’t made for such extremes. When it’s particularly toasty the Lutetian limestone begins to bake, hold heat and transform these ornate edifices into rudimentary ovens. That’s before we talk about old schools and underserved medical facilities – though 30,000 air conditioners were ordered last Friday for use in hospitals. That’s a good start and Mélenchon isn’t wrong about Paris’s dearth of parks and trees. But these things won’t be enough.
The brutal truth is that Europe is heating up faster than expected. To stay competitive and survive the summers to come, it needs to pick a side. Should it join the cool kids in the Gulf, Hong Kong and Singapore? (The city-state’s late founder, Lee Kuan Yew, realised that air-con had changed the “nature of civilisation by making development possible in the tropics” as long ago as the 1950s.) It could take an American-style approach and loosen planning, letting the private sector rip. How do you say, “Chill, baby, chill” in French?
Baron Haussmann might not have expected to hear the hum of air conditioners in Paris but cities, like attitudes, need to adapt. And fast. The Paris Paradox is how leaders can cut through the posturing and set a policy that works for both the people and the planet, keeping the city safe and productive. AC will be part of the answer. Sang-froid about the weather looks commendable but it’s delaying decisions that must be made now.
Josh Fehnert is Monocle’s editor. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today.
Further reading:
– Heatwave be damned! Paris Fashion Week Men’s brings leather and layers to the runways
– The essential survival guide on how to beat the heat in the city
– Amid Paris’s everyday hustle, the city’s iconic Fermob chair is the perfect reminder to slow down – and take a seat
