Paris faces air conditioning dilemma against heat
As heat waves intensify, many Parisians are beginning to embrace the idea of installing air conditioning, despite the traditional resistance to this climate control system common in other capitals.
Modern office buildings and department stores in the French capital already use it, but air conditioning has never been the norm in homes, as it is considered unenvironmental, inefficient, and largely unnecessary.
Complaints from foreign visitors disconcerted by Parisians' rejection of air conditioning were generally met with a lack of interest.
But intense heat waves in recent years, which experts attribute to global warming, are weakening resistance and causing citizens to install the system, albeit with guilt.
“Even when you know it’s a selfish pleasure, there comes a tipping point where all arguments against it are discarded,” says Ruben Arnold, a 47-year-old father of young children.
As the director of a startup specializing in energy use in buildings, Arnold acknowledges that he was very aware of its climate cost, but needed to install it so that he and his children could “survive” the heat.
For people living directly under the typical tin-covered roofs of Parisian buildings, hot summers can feel like life under a frying pan.
"During the last heat wave, the temperature reached 41°C inside my house," explains Marion Lafuste, who lives north of Paris under the famous rooftops. "I didn't think that was even possible."
Ice packs placed in front of fans and closed blinds provide scant relief for the 40-year-old, who can retreat to the countryside with her family when it's too hot.
If he hadn't had this possibility, Lafuste confesses that he would have bought an air conditioner, despite all the "ideological problems" that it represents, although "I no longer judge [the people who] install it."
Air conditioning is not yet common in Paris, "but it is in full development," according to a recent study by the urban planning agency APUR, in part due to pressure from foreign visitors.
Although concrete numbers are difficult to obtain, “we observe a strong trend” towards installation, says Karine Bidart, director of the Paris Climate Agency (APC), for whom this is “very problematic”.
"Several studies predict that a massive increase in private air conditioning use will raise outdoor temperatures by 2°C," explains Dan Lert, the councilor responsible for the city's climate plan.
For Frédéric Delhommeau, from APC, “using air conditioning as a last resort, especially for vulnerable people, is one thing, but resorting to it as a reflex is problematic, because there are other cheaper and more efficient solutions.”
Solutions include building renovations, including replacing zinc roofs, but heritage protection agencies often block these initiatives, Lert says.
For researcher Anne Ruas, Paris can still avoid the use of air conditioning in homes, but not for long, and so she advocates “thinking of solutions and proposing less harmful systems,” instead of “blaming people.”
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