The south already mostly had AC. The north was too busy criticizing the south for things like closing shops in the afternoon, using blinds, eating late, and of course using AC. Now I guess they're beginning to realize that maybe it's not that the south is "lazy" but just adaptation.

Toning down the snark, to be honest, most places in countries like France and Germany didn't have AC because up to a few years ago, maybe they'd seriously need it one week per year or so... it didn't make sense for them to have it just to keep it turned off 99% of the time. I'm sure they will adapt, but it always takes some time to change the old ways.

Which bit of Europe are you talking about? Italy and Spain have AC everywhere.

Further north it hasn't been necessary until very recently, and now people are fighting in shops to buy portable units and there are going to be loads of permanent installations once things settle down later this year.

It's nothing new. In 2003 there was a huge heatwave and thousands of people died:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_European_heatwave

The reason is simple to understand. For the majority of the time the AC would sit idle. Some years AC is not required at all because the summer is mild. It's hard to get people to spend money on things that they don't need most of the time, it's like buying insurance.

Even in new build homes? IIUC, many people in Europe were taking advantage of the incentives to install heat pumps as a back door mechanism to install A/C. After all a heat pump is essentially just A/C with a reverser switch.

But that only works in homes with forced air heating. Most of Europe doesn't use forced air heating. You can replace a boiler with a heat pump, but if you do you don't magically get A/C too.

In 2026 it seems silly to do new builds in a cold climate with anything but a forced air heat pump.

If you only need it for 4 days a year, it’s still a big expense that needs some thought

Things are already much better than they used to be. The 2003 heatwave killed ~70k. This year's heatwave was worse, but the number of deaths probably didn't go much beyond 20k.

I think this was overhyped in the media.

I live at 51°N and apartments in my building that face the south largely have AC. I've seen a lot of AC company vans in my neighborhood lately, so I guess many people pulled that trigger this year.

Personally I went to the mountains as it's a 2h drive and naturally cool, moist air beats AC every time.

The people who refuse to install it and make up the majority of deaths are simply old - older than the average life expectancy in the US - and thus typically pinching pennies - especially that for the vast majority of their lives it wasn't necessary.

My father had AC installed a several years ago due to his health and it was probably working overtime this season.

My mother lives in a commie block that is well insulated and surrounded by green spaces, so the heatwave didn't affect her nearly as much.

My college friend discovered his heat pump is actually reversible, so now instead of heated, they have cooled floors. Unfortunately the device wasn't smart enough to on one hand use the heat to heat up tap water and the cold to cool the surroundings, but I guess you can't have everything.

It's mostly about the perception that AC is a band-aid that doesn't just stall fixing the root cause of climate change caused by excessive energy consumption, but actively makes it worse.

How would installing AC help if your job is outside? It would actually make it worse!

We'll just sweat it out and complain. It's more fun!

Collective cultural delusion? Koreans think leaving a fan on while you're sleeping is deadly... people are weird.

Since when one learns at school? You go there, listen some guys and then go back home and there the real learning happens: when you sit down, alone, facing a blank paper or a problem you need to solve based on the notes you took while at school.

That's an interesting way to investigate how much public policy surrounding schools is actually focused on student education. I think you'd find that there would be significant fear around crime in an environment that already has a heightened risk of riots. For younger students the debate would shift to burden of additional childcare.

That's been a thing for a long time. "Hitzefrei".

In Germany that's already a thing afaik

> Unions want enforceable workplace thermal limits, based on the wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT)

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/08/unions-e...

The submission just doesn't include it, but that seems to be the goal to apply that concept :)

First, weather services would need to report it. None of the ones I've seen do. Most don't even report feels-like temperature, they just report plain temperature... in my city (often windy and humid) it's all but useless, you can need a jacket with 21ºC one day and be comfortable without it with 16ºC the next.

It's specifically for "jobs in sectors like agriculture and construction", not sure better buildings will help the workers out on fields and construction sites much.

Although one temperature threshold probably don't make much sense, a strict 30C across the entire continent would mean massively different things in different countries, in many countries that mean basically the entire summer off, every year.

It's not clear from the article, but I think it's obvious they are referring to jobs that require being outdoors

Most places in the south already have AC

And the ones that don't have it, oh well, too bad :)

The south of what?

southern europeans have had to deal with the northern cultural view that we're lazy, and modern work culture imported from those countries has virtually ended siesta. well, now it's hot over there too. we can be nice and tell them "see?" or we can be mean and have them live with the consequences of their moral positions. Right now I'm leaning a bit to the later, but it might just be the heat getting to me :P

_laughs in maltese_

It's already somewhat implemented in Florida. OSHA requires employers to protect employees from extreme heat. It doesn't explicitly require air conditioning, but air conditioning is standard practice in Florida so not providing it would open up employers to an OSHA complaint.

For outdoor work, protection from extreme heat generally implies shade, hydration, frequent breaks, et cetera.

Your workplace in Florida has an interior temperature of 86F? This is about temperature in the workplace, not outside temperatures.

Most remotely modern interior spaces in Florida are going to be air conditioned so this is already not a problem in Florida.

Do you have to live & work in un-ac'd buildings?

Cos today in my pokey town, my house is 30°C, my local library 28°C the gym is at least 25°C and the outside 31°C at a dew point of 15°C. Its not Florida but its the UK and there’s no relief.

From the article, it's for "jobs in sectors like agriculture and construction". Would be interesting to learn about how this kind of work is managed in hotter climates.

For office work, a lot of European countries (especially the UK) haven't invested in AC as much as the rest of the world because they haven't needed to. This is especially apparent in housing, where working from home is becoming difficult in these higher temperatures.

I lived in the southern US for a long time. Any office I ever worked in would send everyone home if the AC was broken in the summer.

I was about to make the same comment about Minnesota, but I'd only get a three month vacation.

What makes you think that this isn't happening?

China ramps up production & shipping to Europe [1] and a quick glance at Google Trends for Germany, UK and France AC install searches are up 5x from last year, and last year was already double or more of the previous years.

1: https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202607/1364856.shtml

I have a heat pump based water heater installed in the garage. One side benefit is the garage got cooled down. It used to be that the garage got very hot during hot days. Now it’s cool.

I have a warmtepomp -- it's great, but it is cooling the house, not the air a only gets it to 5 day degrees down. It's mandatory for new houses in Amsterdam I think and there seem to plans to retrofit old buildings. It helps that we also produce it, but the usual types tried to sabotage that too last time.

Heatwave from a few weeks ago had 70% humidity where I live. It's brutal with no AC to dehumidify.

Except for a large part of Europe, the relative humidity is quite high. So, they're suffering more than most. I say this as someone who once lived in a desert and is well accustomed to 40-50 C summers.

Given that the article specifically calls out a construction union and an agricultural union as two of the unions making this request, I don't think that's a realistic solution to the problem.

Probably a good argument for the agreement; puts teeth behind worker safety/comfort.

In the farm?

The downvoting would be because of your claims that europeans have outlawed air conditioning