EU commissioner plans city cooling push after sleeping on balcony

EU energy and housing commissioner Dan Jørgensen says extreme summer heat forced him to sleep on his balcony in Brussels. He is preparing an EU proposal to help cities cool homes, DR reports.

Jørgensen said his Brussels apartment has no air conditioning. Fans he bought were not enough to make the nights comfortable. He said many homes in the city become extremely hot, particularly apartments near the roof, and that the heat is especially dangerous for older people.

A study by Imperial College found that more than 50,000 people in Europe died as a result of extreme heat this summer. Researchers attributed about 32,000 of those deaths to human-caused global warming.

Drought destroyed around 12 million tonnes of crops, while wildfires burned more than 660,000 hectares and left villages in ruins. The Danube and Rhine also dried up. New calculations from the Danish Meteorological Institute show that this year’s summer could become normal in the future, Jørgensen said.

He warned that more reliance on air conditioning could increase energy use and worsen climate change. In Paris, air conditioning cannot be installed in many protected buildings. Maryll Frebour Renote, a spokesperson for an association representing people who live in hot top-floor apartments, said air conditioning would not solve the problem without improvements to insulation and ventilation.

Jørgensen said the forthcoming EU proposal would address how to cool homes. Possible measures include air conditioning powered by renewable energy, planting more trees in cities and improving the energy efficiency of homes.

Satellite data showed that on a day in June, surface temperatures on asphalt and buildings in Brussels exceeded 47 degrees, while temperatures in a nearby forest were about 24.5 degrees, the article said.

Jørgensen said the solutions are available but require investment and political targets, which he said would be presented.