At her State of the Union address today, the President of the European Commission was right to note that this summer was the hottest, but “probably the coolest of the years to come”.
The issues related to extreme weather and heatwaves across the EU are vast – from major issues such as fires, floods, storms, leaving Europeans with no insurance for damages, strained local firefighter capabilities, lack of water for agricultural needs, damages to electric grids, to a lack of simple solutions such as air conditioning, which has negative health and productivity implications for European consumers.
The issue, of course, warrants a wide range of changes to how European, national, and local regulators work – and Ursula von der Leyen mentioned many areas that will be prioritized in the next few years. The head of the Commission promised to identity 100 most vulnerable territories in Europe, focus on adaptation technologies, be it related to agriculture, current insurance limitations (that don’t cover the damages for both physical persons and farmers due to extreme weather conditions), and set up a dedicated Climate Insurance Alliance, joint European Firefighting Fleet, along with the European Heatwave Plan and joint to have better early warning systems, preparedness, urban adaptation and cooling.
However, it’s important for the EU Commission to quickly develop a short-term strategy and proposals to make Europeans’ lives easier while they await the adoption of major legislative packages, strategies, and urban adaptation schemes. One of the areas that warrants a swift response is the lack of air-conditioning availability in the EU.
Consumer Choice Center’s Bill Wirtz previously noted that air-conditioning penetration in the EU stands at only 19%, compared to 90% in the United States and 91% in Japan. As a result, in 2024 alone, more than 62,700 people across the EU lost their lives due to heat-related causes.
According to the Consumer Choice Center’s report from 2026, the main hurdles to installing air conditioning in the EU remain related to cultural heritage permits, the EU’s facade and neighbors’ agreement rules, noise ordinances, and more.
The pan-EU taskforce and solutions to enable European consumers to install air-conditioners more easily across the EU could also present a good opportunity for European industry, such as mass-producing and selling more innovative, quieter devices, such as monobloc air-conditioning systems that require no bulky, noisy outdoor compressors built on the facade. Otherwise, focusing only on adapting old buildings with energy-efficient cooling systems will take even more time than getting a permit for air conditioning.