‘It’s like a furnace’: French struggle with heat-trap homes as climate inequality grows

Paris has for years been considered to have the highest heatwave mortality risk of any European capital. Photograph: Ed Alcock/The Guardian View image in fullscreen Paris has for years been considered to have the highest heatwave mortality risk of any European capital. Photograph: Ed Alcock/The Guardian ‘It’s like a furnace’: French struggle with heat-trap homes as climate inequality grows Many of France’s buildings are not designed for hot weather – and low-income housing estates are suffering the worst L iving in a sweltering, seventh-floor flat on a concrete housing estate south of Paris, Samira said she was feeling desperate as France experienced its highest temperatures on record this week. “Yesterday I sat down and cried, I thought I’m going to die,” said the 35-year-old single parent and former building caretaker. Her flat in Ris-Orangis in Essonne is, like millions of apartments in France , poorly insulated and lacking in outside window shutters. “Blazing sun hits my windows all day – I can’t breathe, I feel dizzy, there is no air,” she said. “My home is an oven, it’s unbearable. I can only use a fan for short bursts, for fear of electricity costs. I only get two hours’ sleep a night. I’m exhausted. The days feel endless trying to protect my son from the heat. And I know these temperatures are only going to get worse in time. The government only ever acts at the last minute. Not enough is being done long-term to protect people.” Samira’s 10-year-old son, Issam, attends one of the 1,800 schools in France that have been closed because they are dangerously hot. “My classroom on the top floor reached 40 degrees inside,” he said. “It was too hot to have lessons, so we just played games.” He normally goes to bed at 9pm but he has been up until midnight because it’s only manageable to be outside very late or very early. Samira said: “I feel shut in, physically and mentally.” More than 44 million people in France, out of a total population of 67 million, have been under the highest red alert for heat this week, with daytime temperatures exceeding 40C in many places and staying dangerously hot at night. View image in fullscreen Noah, 22: ‘There’s no air, we can never sleep more than four hours.’ Photograph: Ed Alcock/The Guardian The extreme heat has led to higher air pollution, a rise in hospital admissions, school closures and train cancellations. It has caused power cuts to thousands of homes from Brittany to the south-east, leaving people unable to ventilate their homes with electric fans or close electric blinds. French nuclear energy output was reduced as high temperatures limited access to cooling water. Hundreds of thousands of ⁠poultry have perished in the heat, overwhelming carcass collection services. The impact of the heatwave has been made considerably worse by the high proportion of French buildings and infrastructure not designed to cope with high temperatures. Paris, one of Europe’s most densely populated cities, known for its poor