Top Climate Tech Exec: AC gap between Europe and America becomes an economic responsibility

Now imagine the same scenario in an average European city. You wake up after a night of throwing and shooting. You are sticky, uncomfortable and already fear the journey. Based on a crowded train, you suffer from a strong delay while the transport infrastructure of your city is struggling at extreme temperatures. If you work at home, the only relief comes from a fan that circulates slowly hot air in the room.

The fundamental difference between these two realities? Air conditioning.

In the United States, 90% of households have ac. In Europe? Only 20% on average. In some countries, such as the United Kingdom, this number falls less than 5%.

At first glance, this may seem a minor difference – fodder for Tiktok sketches or Reddit debates, where Americans and Europeans make fun of the respective capacities of others to manage the summer weather. But when the temperature increases, the impact on productivity is anything but trivial.

The growing productivity gap of Europe with the United States – which has widened from the pandemic – is not only the result of regulations, labor laws or technological prowess. This is also the climate. Or, more precisely, the difference in the way we feel extreme temperatures.

Heat is an existential threat to certain European economies

Europe is the fastest continent on earth. In nations mainly without air conditioning, heat waves can (and more and more) close schools, disturb companies and prevent people from working at best. Employers are forced to change the hours of work to protect heat staff, people with caring responsibilities have trouble dealing with the most vulnerable (children, the elderly) and families are taken in a daily battle for comfort and efficiency. This climate vulnerability is not only embarrassing, it is a serious threat to economic competitiveness.

Economists already warn that Europe’s failure to adapt to a warmer future could reduce its growth prospects. Tourism also seems ready to suffer. While heat waves become more frequent, especially in southern Europe, the holidays are starting to look elsewhere in search of more comfortable climates. This presents an existential threat to the vital element of economies, especially through the Mediterranean.

While the continent is struggling to balance the requirements of climate change and economic growth, heat is an increasing responsibility.

Public calls for AC become stronger. In the United Kingdom, house research with air conditioning has soaked and AC quickly becomes a symbol of middle class status. In France, politicians like Marine Le Pen jumped on the train, announcing a “large air conditioning plan”. You can imagine that the solution is simple: copy the American game book and deploy air conditioning across Europe.

As tempting as it may seem, it is not quite simple.

The grid is not up

Air conditioning is with a high intensity of electricity. And most European nations do not have the grid infrastructure to support a change in this scale. This fragility was exposed in Italy this summer, when a thrust induced by the heat waves of the CA started strokes.

The national networks of Europe endeavor in the seams: struggle to monitor the pace of the range of upgrades required for modern consumption, and struggling with the volume of clean energy sources which claim to connect. (It is a deep irony that large quantities of solar energy caused by warmer and drier summers – which could unlock AC capacities without creating carbon load – cannot be properly used due to delays in network connection.)

In the large expanses of Europe, buildings are also older and poorly isolated. Planning restrictions are tighter and rental culture rather than having to complicate the installation.

Collectively, besieged grids and logistical challenges mean that these sweaty nights and these lethargic days are likely to become an integral part of European summers.

To escape this hottest, link and unlock American -style productivity levels that AC compatible environments can provide, we need more intelligent infrastructure and more investments.

This means the use of advanced modeling and AI to understand where the grids are the weakest, how demand change and where small targeted upgrades could unlock big gains. This means simulating future heat scenarios for stress test networks before attempting a crisis or expansion of capacity. This means replacing conjectures with precision so that investments in cooling – and infrastructure behind it – really carry.

It is only with this type of intelligent planning that Europe can move fairly quickly to adapt to a warmer future – without burning its networks, budgets or climatic objectives in the process.

Air conditioning can be the corrective, but without meeting the challenges of underlying infrastructure, Europe will continue to sweat through heat and undergo the economic consequences. And through the pond? Well, the Americans just wake up with a good night’s sleep.

The opinions expressed in the Fortune.com comments are only the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.