The European country that has become "addicted" to air conditioning. The lone record holder.

A similar situation to Italy is also observed in Greece. The country ranks second in the EU in terms of electricity consumption for air conditioning, accounting for 8,000 terajoules. Just behind Greece in the ranking are France (7,800 TJ), Spain (6,100 TJ), and Germany (4,500 TJ).

It is worth noting that despite the growing popularity of air conditioning, its share in overall electricity consumption in EU households remains small – just 0.6%. For comparison, as much as 62.5% of energy is used for space heating, 15% for water heating, and 14.5% for lighting.

Eurostat data also shows that Europeans are using less and less electricity in their homes. Consumption reached a record high of 11 million terajoules in 2021, but fell to 9.6 million TJ in 2023.

Heatwaves hit Europe

Scientists have long warned that Europe is the fastest-warming continent in the world. Experts predict that the deepening climate crisis will bring increasingly frequent and severe heatwaves in the coming years.

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Data indicates that climate change and the resulting heatwaves that hit Europe in late June and early July tripled the number of deaths in 12 European cities studied. This is alarming news, especially since heatwaves in Europe contributed to nearly 50,000 deaths last year.