BERLIN, June 28 — Germany’s state-owned broadcaster Westdeutsche Rundfunk is running a campaign against air conditioning as the country endures a record-breaking summer heatwave. The broadcaster warns that air conditioning systems contribute to global warming, claiming the Earth could warm by 0.05 degrees by 2050. Its science platform Quark declared: “What Cools us Down Heats the Planet.” The timing is awkward.
For the third consecutive day, a new record high temperature has been measured in Germany, according to radio station Deutschlandfunk. The extreme heat is causing disruptions to daily life, damaging infrastructure including asphalt and concrete surfaces on the Autobahn, and has sparked wildfires across several states — Saxony-Anhalt, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Bavaria.
So the mechanics here are worth dissecting. German leftists and Green politicians have long campaigned against air conditioning in the name of climate change. But on closer reading, the political calculation looks shaky.
German commentators reportedly fear that campaigning against air conditioning will only make the Left and the Greens more unpopular. Follow the money, or rather the votes.
The right-wing Alternative for Germany — AfD — is approaching a record-breaking 30 percent in the latest opinion polls, according to the report. The party’s common-sense approach to air conditioning is expected to boost its support in the upcoming East German state elections. “We must not leave [the issue of] air conditioning,” the party has argued.
The catch for the Greens and their media allies is straightforward: telling people they cannot cool their homes during a record heatwave is not a vote-winner. The campaign, reported by Germany’s Apollo News, is being rolled out just as the country faces infrastructure damage from heat — melting roads and wildfires — that makes the need for cooling more acute. This is not a small editorial line.
WDR is a major state-funded broadcaster. Its science platform’s framing — that personal cooling devices heat the planet — directly conflicts with the immediate reality of Germans dealing with record temperatures.
The 0.05 degrees warming figure by 2050, attributed to air conditioning, is the kind of long-term calculation that feels abstract when the Autobahn is buckling today. What to watch next is whether this campaign backfires as dramatically as some commentators predict. The AfD is already polling near 30 percent, a level that would reshape German politics.
East German state elections are approaching, and the air conditioning debate may become a proxy for broader frustrations with Green energy policy and state media messaging. Germany’s left and Green politicians have bet heavily on climate policy as a core issue.
But telling voters they cannot use air conditioning during a historic heatwave, while the infrastructure around them cracks and burns, is a hard sell. The disconnect between the WDR campaign and the reality on the ground — wildfires in three states, record temperatures for three consecutive days — may prove politically costly.
