Where does this notion come from? Many Europeans cannot even afford proper AC in summer and heating in winter.
> Many Europeans cannot even afford proper AC in summer and heating in winter.
Basically nobody lacks heating in winter, that one is made up. The thing people lack is AC and its just because people aren't used to it so they don't see it as a need.
Edit: Saying this is like saying people can't afford shelter in USA, it is true and there are many homeless but it describes a tiny fraction.
I suspect it's just that Europe is mostly north of the US and AC is more luxury than necessity. Places in the US like Seattle, which is still south of much of Europe, only recently rose above 50% AC prevalence. It's become much more popular as the climate as grown warmer.
A lot of people don't need AC, and heating is a non-issue almost everywhere.
Besides: I'd rather put sedum/green stuff on our flat roof, which also helps insulate a little bit in winter but really really helps in summer.
But relateedly, US household energy expenditure is enormous compared to other countries and a lot of it is burning fossil fuels to run AC. There's a big money vs ethics tradeoff going the wrong way for emissions, more so from being a huge oil producer.
I'm interested in the numbers behind this. The location and timing of most air conditioning needs correlates strongly with the availability of PV. At this point I would have guessed that heating is strongly reliant on fossil fuels (and will be for many years to come) and air conditioning will be much greener.