The whole question, answered
Why doesn't Europe have air conditioning?
Because it decided not to. Not because it is poor, and not because it is banned. The richest countries cool the fewest homes. What stops Europe cooling is price, planning culture, and a politics that treats comfort in a heatwave as a moral failing. Here is every excuse, ranked.
AC is not a crime.
Every excuse, ranked
A unit costs about €300. Europe is not too poor; Germany and the UK out-earn South Korea and cool a quarter of the homes. The block is planning rules, split-incentive rentals, and grids no one upgraded.
A heatwave is worse, and you cannot switch it off. A modern unit is a heat pump run in reverse, the same machine Europe subsidizes for heating.
The aesthetic objection. The Americans look alive. So do the 90% of Singaporean and Japanese homes that are cooled.
Shutters cool nothing. Above 35°C the UK government says a fan stops helping an older body. The siesta is now enforced by decree because the buildings cannot stay open.
So is surviving August. Europe gives its cattle a 30°C transport limit and its citizens a leaflet about closing the curtains.
Country by country
Share of homes with air conditioning, least cooled first. The United States: ~90%.