The French, like many of their fellow Europeans, are sweltering under the latest heatwave. And unlike Americans, very few of them have AC in their homes to cool them off (25% of households in France have AC versus 90% in the US).

Marine Le Pen, the leader of the Rassemblement National’s parliamentary group, unveiled a new “grand plan for air conditioning” to roll out AC in all public buildings, especially schools, hospitals, and retirement homes. With summers getting warmer, AC could indeed save thousands of lives in France. In 2019, The Lancet found that 195,000 heat-related deaths were averted by AC among people aged 65 or older globally.

Le Pen’s plans came under attack from the Left and even the Government. The leader of the Greens, Marine Tondelier, mocked Le Pen for making AC the focal point of her environmental policies. Government ministers similarly ironised on Le Pen’s newfound interest in climate politics and were concerned by the environmental footprint of AC.

But what does the Government propose instead? Officially, the priorities are to greenify cities, develop geothermal solutions or to renovate buildings. Air conditioning should be limited to strategic buildings or public transport. The Government also communicates heavily on adopting common sense measures: shutting windows during the day, putting wet towels in front of ventilators, etc. It even created a website with a laundry list of ideas, but lambasts AC, which is apparently “not the best solution in periods of extreme heat”. Too expensive, a better solution would apparently be to rent another place instead.

AC does have drawbacks, and an unhealthy usage can increase the temperature of cities, especially those parts that have been most paved over with concrete and have little vegetation. But France’s opposition to AC seems especially bizarre given its nuclear plants produces low-carbon energy. In fact in recent summers, thanks to both the country’s nuclear grid and to its solar panels working overtime, France was occasionally selling electricity at negative prices. All of these French assets give the uncomfortable sensation that rather than working on developing one of the most sophisticated AC networks in the world, the Government would rather have the French sweat to atone for humanity’s climate sins.

But perhaps the French themselves are willing to suffer. In 2021, a poll found that 58% of the population would rather suffer from heat rather than buy an AC unit to protect the environment. Since then however, the revealed preferences of the French indicate they are increasingly willing to pinch their nose, with some AC companies reporting their sales to have tripled since last year.

By pitting herself against the anti-AC establishment, Le Pen might be tapping into a growing movement and a sense of social inequality. Le Pen explicitly made that pitch, arguing that “with France’s so-called elites, energy sobriety is always asked of the middle and working class”. And having a government minister oppose Le Pen’s AC rollout from the comfort of a cool climatised room is exactly the kind of footage that Le Pen will be looking for.

With the consequences of global warming manifesting ever more clearly, the climate politics of prevention will increasingly have to cohabitate with the politics of mitigation. This French example is perhaps an early sign that the populist and nationalist parties on the Right might make a better electoral case to deal with climatic hell than the austere penitent pitch of the Greens and Centrists.

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François Valentin is a political analyst and co-host of the Uncommon Decency podcast.

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