The counterfactual
If Europe had America's air conditioning.
The US air-conditions ~90% of homes. Europe air-conditions ~19%. That gap is not weather. It is a choice, and it has a body count.
Heat deaths preventable each summer, Europe-wide
33,428
of 62,775 (ISGlobal 2024), if AC rose from
~19% to ~90%
The price of the fix
~€300
a single domestic AC unit, the intervention Europe keeps refusing
Household air-conditioning adoption · IEA / WRI. The fix costs about €300.
Drag it yourself
What if Europe bought the box?
Slide Europe's air-conditioning adoption from today's ~19% toward America's ~90%.
Country by country
Lives the gap costs.
Per country: heat deaths in summer 2024 that AC at US levels could have prevented. Built on public data.
| Country | AC now | 2024 heat deaths | Preventable |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🇮🇹 Italy | 56% | 19,038 | 4,855 |
| 🇩🇪 Germany | 3% | 6,282 | 4,099 |
| 🇪🇸 Spain | 41% | 6,743 | 2,478 |
| 🇷🇴 Romania | 32% | 4,943 | 2,150 |
| 🇫🇷 France | 25% | 2,451 | 1,195 |
| 🇵🇱 Poland | 8% | 1,780 | 1,095 |
| 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | 3% | 1,311 | 855 |
| 🇬🇷 Greece | 90% | 5,980 | 0 |
How this is calculated. Avoided deaths ≈ published heat deaths ×
(US adoption − local adoption) × an AC protective factor of
0.75. Built on public data; the protective factor
is a documented assumption, detailed on the methodology page.