As Italy faces the summer’s most intense heatwave this weekend, fresh number-crunching by a Spanish health research institute reveals 35,000 more deaths than usual during Europe’s four record-breaking heatwaves this year. Excess mortality in Germany, France and Spain alone crossed 25,000, according to the provisional estimate. Other numbers from the International Energy Agency set the context: only one in four European households had air-conditioning in 2025, compared to nine out of 10 in Japan and the US; the comparable number for India is closer to one in 20. While this is music to the ears of AC salespeople, the longer-term planning for all countries must involve serious rethinking of how we build houses. India, too, must reorient its building codes after the ongoing housing census returns an updated picture.
