Several European countries are experiencing intense heat waves, especially the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland. This weather has proven to be deadly, as many of these countries are ill-prepared to deal with extreme weather. This is due, in part, to some of the climate policies in place.
Europe’s suffering is largely the result of misplaced priorities. Governments spent years treating climate policy as a moral crusade but neglected to take practical investments to help people survive heatwaves: reliable power, resilient water systems, modernized buildings, and air conditioning.
Most American homes have air conditioning, but the International Energy Agency estimates that air-conditioning ownership in Europe is around 20%. What we see as an ordinary household appliance is, during high heat, a life-saving infrastructure.
This should be an obvious adaptation priority. But Europe’s climate politics treat energy consumption as an enemy.
Europe, more than anywhere else, championed a net-zero agenda. Many leaders embraced the utopian idea that they could alter the world’s climate trajectory by self-denial, even as China and India burned more and more coal to fuel economic growth. The result for Europeans was not global salvation but higher energy costs, weaker industrial competitiveness, and less resilience.
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Germany phased out nuclear power, deepened its dependence on imported energy, and left itself defenseless when Russia weaponized gas supplies. A policy sold as environmental virtue became a strategic liability.
That should have woken up Europe, but its left-wingers saw it as a reason to plow onward even faster. In a November 2025 speech, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed to “double down” on the fight against climate change. He railed against “mutual mistrust and selfish interests prevailing over the common good.”
Starmer refuses to learn. In this, he is not alone. America’s Left wants to share Europe’s fate.
Read the full story in the Washington Examiner.
