How air conditioning has become a political issue in France

WBUR | By Here & Now Newsroom

Published July 27, 2026 at 12:00 PM EDT

For a country that’s never needed, and often looked down on, air conditioning, this has been a summer of reckoning. As France suffers through successive extreme heatwaves, AC has become a political issue too.

NPR’s Eleanor Beardsley reports.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

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How air conditioning has become a political issue in France

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