Overview
- A late‑June heatwave from June 23 to 29 set new national high‑temperature records across Germany, France, the UK, Italy and other countries and triggered red‑level warnings, school closures and transport and road damage.
- Only about one in five European homes have air conditioning, a gap traced to historically milder summers, high installation cost and complexity for older or protected buildings, and climate policy aims that limit cooling use.
- The sudden surge in demand has exhausted retail stocks of portable and easy‑install units in many Western European markets and produced reports of long queues and single‑unit scarcity at stores.
- Chinese makers including Gree, Hisense and TCL report sharp sales growth, compressed production cycles and logistics shifts such as more road freight, while installation lead times in some areas have been pushed into August.
- The episode raises near‑term risks for supply chains and local electricity systems and poses a policy tradeoff between adapting to hotter summers with more cooling and meeting energy and climate goals.