Air conditioning is not the answer to surviving heatwaves in the Netherlands

In late June, we knew the drill: curtains closed by 9am, errands done early, and ice cream in the freezer. During the heatwave earlier this summer, the Netherlands recorded its warmest night in history, with city temperatures never dropping below the mid-twenties.

The NS ran fewer trains while fans and paddling pools vanished from Hema shelves. When the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) issued its first-ever code red warning for extreme heat, with Limburg reaching 39,4 degrees celsius, it simply confirmed what everyone's bodies had been telling them for days: this was not normal Dutch summer weather.

Except, it is becoming more regular. June's 11-day heatwave was the longest ever recorded in the Netherlands, and according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, it made June 2026 the hottest June ever measured in western Europe - beating a record set only the year before. Extreme heat caused by climate change is becoming the new normal, and the Netherlands is not structurally prepared for it.

Air conditioning is not the answer

So what would it look like for the Netherlands to prepare for the future? The reflex answer is air conditioning, and there is truth in it. Dutch schools, hospitals, and care homes are built to hold warmth in, not keep it out, and cooling these critical buildings will save lives.

But air conditioning cannot carry the whole load. Units are expensive to buy and run, and the people most at risk from heat, such as the elderly, people with health conditions, and low-income households, are often the least able to afford them. 

Air conditioners also pump excess heat directly into the street, warming neighbourhoods further, and strain the power grid at the worst possible moment. During June's heatwave, electricity prices in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany hit record highs. Due to grid restrictions in Utrecht, the central library had to choose between running the escalators or keeping the air conditioning on. 

If air conditioning is the only plan, staying safe in summer becomes a question of disposable income. Staying cool and healthy needs to be accessible to everyone, regardless of what they earn. 

What other cities are doing

Cities elsewhere in Europe and beyond are already showing how to make cooling accessible to everyone.

Vancouver

After a 2021 heat dome killed hundreds of people - most of them elderly, chronically ill, and alone at home - Vancouver learned that telling people to find a cooling centre is not enough. The city now distributes "cool kits" (a thermometer, spray bottle, cooling towel and freezer packs) to residents without air conditioning, and funds community organisations to check on the people not reached by official channels.

Athens

As Europe's hottest capital, Athens has built its heat strategy around reaching vulnerable residents where they are. Its “Help at Home+” programme sends volunteers into the homes of isolated, mostly elderly residents to prevent and treat heat symptoms, backed by a daily heat helpline. 

The city's seniors' centres double as air-conditioned "Friendship Clubs", open to all residents from 9am to 9pm during heatwaves. All of this is triggered automatically by an early warning system that categorises heatwaves by the expected impact on health, not just the temperature.

Barcelona

Barcelona has opened a network of 350 climate shelters in libraries, museums, civic centres, parks and gardens. More than 90 percent of the city's most at-risk residents can now reach a free, accessible cool space within a 10-minute walk. These spaces are safe, equipped with water, and open year-round.

Paris

Through its OASIS programme, Paris has transformed 75 schoolyards, replacing sealed asphalt with trees, greenery and shade. The redesigned yards stay cooler during heatwaves, and outside school hours they open to the neighbourhood as accessible "cool islands", co-designed by pupils, parents and teachers.

None of these measures require residents to have money to spare. They rely instead on greenery, water, public buildings, and neighbours looking out for one another.

Preparing the Netherlands for future summers

The Netherlands is famously the best-protected delta in the world, because it treats water as a collective problem, solved with collective infrastructure. Heat deserves the same approach. 

Cool public spaces within walking distance, green schoolyards, help lines and home visits for those most at risk, and shade and greenery built into every street - these are proven, affordable measures already working in cities across Europe and beyond.

Adopting them now would mean that when the next record-breaking summer arrives, and it will, everyone in the Netherlands can stay safe, not just those who can afford to.

Human-caused climate change is driving up temperatures around the world. Europe is the fastest-warming continent, heating up twice as fast as the global average, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.

Every tonne of CO2 released into the atmosphere adds to a warming trend that is no longer a future risk but our lived reality. Adapting our cities to survive the heat has to go hand in hand with cutting CO2 emissions.