French heatwave drives up demand for AC, despite concerns

Summary

The second early-season heatwave of the year has brought the return of a politically-charged issue. That of air-conditioning - for decades, France has been notoriously reticent to adopt the technology - currently just 25% of French households have it. That figure is up significantly from just a decade ago, and it's set to keep rising as climate change brings increasingly frequent episodes of extreme heat. France's largely nuclear-based power generation means that the increased electricity consumption of AC has less of an environmental impact than elsewhere - but there are other concerns.