The environment minister has said the proposal would only worsen urban heat
France’s environment minister on Tuesday rejected a plan by former leader of the National Rally party Marine Le Pen to install air conditioners nationwide to protect citizens during increasingly hot summers, Politico has reported.
Agnes Pannier-Runacher claims that AC units could make heatwaves worse by blowing out hot air on to the street, according to the outlet.
France is battling extreme temperatures as a powerful heatwave grips southern Europe. The country has closed dozens of schools and issued health alerts. Soaring temperatures have also scorched Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Greece.
”The government wants ordinary people to suffer the heat while the so-called French elites benefit from air conditioning,” Le Pen said in a post on X on Monday.
She voiced outrage over the conditions students are facing in the heat and pledged to launch a major air conditioning plan if elected. Earlier this year, the three-time presidential candidate was sentenced to four years in prison for embezzlement – two suspended and two under house arrest – and banned from holding office for five years, barring her from the 2027 presidential race.
Minister for Ecological Transition Agnes Pannier-Runacher reportedly called Le Pen’s air conditioning plan an “inadequate adaptation” to climate change and said it would contribute to overheating cities.
“When you cool a room, you need heat to obtain the cold – which means you’re necessarily heating another area,” she told reporters on Tuesday. “You’re heating up the streets, which increases hot spots.”
A 2020 study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters warned that traditional air conditioning systems that vent hot air outdoors can raise urban temperatures by several degrees. “Although it is an efficient solution for households that can afford it, AC makes the situation worse for households who cannot or do not want to adopt it,” the study said.
Despite this, Le Pen’s party doubled down on the proposal. “Our goal is to install air conditioners as widely as possible – in administrations, schools, retirement homes and private homes,” National Rally lawmaker Frederic Falcon said in a statement.
France has historically seen limited adoption of air conditioning, as many view it with skepticism. Concerns include its high energy consumption, association with bourgeois luxury, and the unsubstantiated belief that it circulates poor-quality air.
Government policy has prioritized other cooling measures such as planting trees, installing reflective surfaces and improving building insulation, particularly in public spaces and strategic infrastructure.
