Europe won't cool anywhere.

EU law caps the temperature for transporting cattle at 30°C. London’s Victoria line has hit 33.6°C, and the deep Tube lines have no air conditioning at all, the tunnels are too tight to vent the heat it would add. Europe gives its cattle a cooling standard it denies its commuters.

British rail is built to a "stress-free" 27°C. At 30°C in the air the steel reaches about 50°C and starts to buckle, so trains slow or stop. In July 2022 the line between London and Edinburgh shut for hours.

Italy’s education ministry says 6% of schools have air conditioning, and most were built before 1992. When the classroom bakes, the official fix is to send the children home.

About 90% of NHS hospital buildings in England are prone to overheating; wards pass 30°C when it is 22°C outside. The estate logged 4,451 overheating incidents in 2023/24. Places built to heal, that cannot cool.

After the 2003 heatwave killed about 14,800 in France, 82% of them aged 75 or older, the law required every nursing home to have one air-conditioned room. One. That is the European minimum for the people heat kills first.

Greece shut the Acropolis to visitors from noon to 5pm during the June 2024 heatwave as temperatures neared 43°C, with the Red Cross handing out water. The continent’s monuments close in the heat. So do its shops.