In 2023, 55% of French people reported having suffered from heat in their homes for at least 24 hours. The Abbé Pierre Foundation is asking the authorities to take this issue into account in “renovation policies”.
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Energy poverty is not limited to winter. In 2023, more than half of French people were too hot in their homes, the Abbé Pierre Foundation (FAP) revealed on Wednesday 21 August, calling for urgent adaptation of housing to heat waves. Last year, 55% of French people said they had suffered from the heat in their homes for at least 24 hours, a quarter suffered from it “frequently” during the summer, while the number of people living in housing “too hot” has increased by 26% since 2013, the Foundation reveals in a report that compiles official data.
Faced with more intense, frequent and long heat waves, “more and more people are experiencing the unsuitability or even uninhabitability of their homes for several months a year”the authors point out. With sometimes fatal consequences, the number of deaths linked to the heat in the summer of 2023 being estimated at 5,000, 75% of which are among those aged 75 and over. The causes in particular in these homes that are turning into kettles are poorly insulated walls and poorly ventilated homes, but also the absence of outdoor spaces or shutters.
“Beyond the euphemism of ‘summer comfort’, it is the habitability of housing and its capacity to protect its inhabitants (…) that urgently needs to be taken into account”warns Christophe Robert, general delegate of the FAP. Despite some developments, the adaptation of housing to the heat “still not at the heart of renovation policies”the report continues.
In fact, the fight against energy insecurity mainly focuses on reducing energy consumption, decarbonizing heating and maintaining a minimum temperature in homes. Regulatory or heritage barriers also sometimes prevent the installation of solar protection or the application of light colors on facades and roofs.
According to an Ipsos-RTE survey published in May 2023, 37% of respondents suffer “both hot and cold”in accommodations that are impossible to heat in winter and which turn into kettles in summer. The apartments are also “three times more often too hot than individual houses”.