Europe is engulfed in a deadly heat wave that demonstrates the danger of embracing utopian energy policies. Democrats in America should pay close attention.
Temperature records are being broken across Europe. The United Kingdom experienced its hottest May on record. London went through a rare “tropical night,” defined as one when the temperature does not fall below 68 degrees. At least nine people have died in water-related incidents, as residents have sought relief from the heat.
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France has seen temperatures 10 degrees higher than usual, and the country perspires under a “heat dome.” Seven people have died so far in what French authorities say are heat-related deaths.
Germany, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and other European nations are also sweltering.
Europe’s suffering is largely the result of misplaced priorities. Governments spent years treating climate policy as a moral crusade but neglected to take practical investments to help people survive heatwaves: reliable power, resilient water systems, modernized buildings, and air conditioning.
Most American homes have air conditioning, but the International Energy Agency estimates that air-conditioning ownership in Europe is around 20%. What we see as an ordinary household appliance is, during high heat, a life-saving infrastructure.
This should be an obvious adaptation priority. But Europe’s climate politics treat energy consumption as an enemy.
Europe, more than anywhere else, championed a net-zero agenda. Many leaders embraced the utopian idea that they could alter the world’s climate trajectory by self-denial, even as China and India burned more and more coal to fuel economic growth. The result for Europeans was not global salvation but higher energy costs, weaker industrial competitiveness, and less resilience.
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel embodied this approach. Nicknamed the “Climate Chancellor,” she championed green energy and climate action during her 16 years in power. Climate change, she said in 2017, was the “issue of our time.”
But Merkel’s legacy was weakness. Germany phased out nuclear power, deepened its dependence on imported energy, and left itself defenseless when Russia weaponized gas supplies. A policy sold as environmental virtue became a strategic liability.
That should have woken up Europe, but its left-wingers saw it as a reason to plow onward even faster. In a November 2025 speech, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed to “double down” on the fight against climate change. He railed against “mutual mistrust and selfish interests prevailing over the common good.”
Starmer refuses to learn. In this, he is not alone. America’s Left wants to share Europe’s fate.
Many Democrats have made climate alarmism their governing creed. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a likely 2028 presidential candidate, has pushed to phase out gasoline-powered cars and championed energy policies that see Europe as a model.
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His beliefs are the rule, not the exception, among his party colleagues. Former Vice President Kamala Harris, the last Democratic presidential nominee, called climate change an “existential threat.”
But Europe is no model. Its embrace of what Secretary of State Marco Rubio rightly called a “climate cult” has made energy more expensive, weakened the continent, and left ordinary people less prepared for extreme weather. The lesson for America is clear: Climate policy that sacrifices abundance, reliability, and adaptation is not compassion. It is dangerous utopianism.
