many low-income households and almost half of tenants, struggle to keep their homes cool. As temperatures continue to rise, those least able to adapt are paying the highest price. This is not an accident; it is a systemic failure. Nearly 75 percent of the EU’s building stock is energy inefficient
Damien Barbosa
More than 3,700 excess deaths have been linked to the June heatwave in France, Belgium and the Netherlands alone. These are not inevitable tragedies. They are the result of political choices, or lack of, about how we build and renovate our homes.
Keeping a home cool is no longer simply a matter of comfort but of health and safety. Millions of renters are trapped in homes they cannot improve. Unlike homeowners, they often cannot install external shutters or blinds without their landlord’s permission.
Nearly one-in-three Europeans lives in rented housing. Yet tenants are far more likely to live in energy-inefficient and poorly insulated homes that overheat during heatwaves.
Recent surveys show that many low-income households and almost half of tenants, struggle to keep their homes cool. As temperatures continue to rise, those least able to adapt are paying the highest price.
This is not an accident; it is a systemic failure.
Nearly 75 percent of the EU’s building stock is energy inefficient and most homes were never designed to cope with the increasingly hot summers Europe now faces. Too often, renovation programmes fail to reach the households that need them most.
France, Spain, Portugal worst affected
In France, the situation is particularly acute.
According to a recent study by the Fondation pour le Logement, 66 percent of French people struggle to cope with heat in their homes.
Nearly half of all homes in France are inadequate to protect residents from high temperatures. More than 40 percent of French homes still do not have solar protection on windows, and 43 percent of homes lack shutters or blinds on sun-exposed windows.
Tenants are disproportionately affected because they are more likely to live in apartments, under roofs and in urban heat islands, with limited means to adapt their homes.
In Portugal, heatwaves are becoming longer, more frequent and more intense, yet too many homes remain unprepared for a climate that is rapidly changing .
Extreme heat is no longer a future threat; it is already defining daily life. Heatwaves are disrupting transport, making homes dangerously hot, fuelling wildfires, and pushing the most vulnerable beyond their limits.
Through ZERO’s national campaign in Portugal, people experiencing energy poverty shared how they cannot afford to keep their homes cool.
In Spain, the climate maths is stark.
Average temperatures have risen by 1.69°C since the mid-20th century, and projections point to a further 2°C increase by mid-century, bringing longer, more frequent and more intense heatwaves.
Yet Spain’s housing stock remains ill-prepared: 75 percent of existing buildings do not meet current energy-efficiency standards, while nearly half of all homes were built before 1980.
Until recently, the conservation, maintenance and climate adaptation of housing had barely been a public policy priority. While renovation programmes worth more than €4bn were launched between 2021 and 2025, only a tiny percentage of applications came from households in vulnerable situations.
Heatwaves are exposing what was always true: Spain’s housing crisis and its climate crisis are inseparable and only renovating homes can make the Spanish society more resilient.
The heat is already here and people cannot wait and simple short-term emergency solutions can be put in place. Protecting people from extreme heat requires a comprehensive approach: immediate action to save lives, homes that stay cool through passive measures and access to efficient renewable cooling when it is needed to protect people’s health.
First, people need immediate protection during the heatwaves. Cities should invest in heat action plans, shelters, green public spaces, care systems for the most vulnerable and nature-based solutions in order to help keep temperatures down.
Athens has appointed a chief heat officer to implement long-term urban heat strategies, while cities across Europe are opening climate shelters and public buildings where people can find relief during periods of extreme weather conditions. These are practical, life-saving measures that should become standard across Europe.
Simple, affordable solutions
Passive cooling measures, including better insulation, external shutters, blinds and ceiling fans, can significantly reduce indoor temperatures and cooling demand (even up to 4 to 5°C).
These affordable, proven solutions should be deployed at scale to protect health and reduce pressure on electricity systems. Every home should have these basic protections against overheating, and tenants should have the right to benefit from them.
Passive cooling should be one of the foundations of our response to rising temperatures. However, during extreme heat, active cooling can be essential, particularly for the most vulnerable households.
Where it is needed to protect health, everyone, not only those who can afford it, should have access to efficient cooling powered by renewable electricity. Renewable heating solutions such as heat pumps have an important role to play, providing efficient heating in winter and cooling in summer.
Heat pumps should complement, not replace, passive cooling measures and better-performing homes that reduce cooling needs in the first place.
Making these solutions affordable and accessible is just as important as deploying them. Low-income households and tenants, who often live in the least efficient homes while facing the greatest barriers to improving them, must not be left behind. Innovative financing models, including social leasing and carefully designed heat-as-a-service schemes, can remove upfront costs while ensuring affordability, transparency and strong consumer protections.
Ultimately, the most effective way to protect people is to renovate Europe’s homes while rapidly phasing out fossil fuels from buildings.
Deep renovation, combined with passive cooling measures and access to efficient renewable heating and cooling solutions, can reduce energy demand, lower bills, improve health and cut dependence on fossil fuels.
Brussels can help
The National Building Renovation Plans (NBRPs), due by the end of 2026 are a crucial opportunity to prioritise the worst-performing buildings, protect vulnerable households and set a clear pathway to phase out fossil fuels in buildings by 2040 at the latest.
The draft plans submitted by member states fall short of delivering that ambition and must become credible roadmaps for healthy, climate-resilient homes while ensuring tenants have enforceable rights.
Across Europe, tenants are already organising because they cannot afford to wait.
In France, they have launched the campaign Pas de volets, pas de loyer (“No shutters, no rent”), demanding the right to place their rent into escrow when landlords refuse to carry out the necessary work, allowing tenants to install the shutters themselves using the withheld rent. Their message is simple: no one should have to endure dangerous homes without the right to make them safer.
Europe’s leaders can no longer claim they did not know. The warnings are clear, the evidence is overwhelming and the deaths are preventable. For millions of tenants across Europe, this is not simply a housing issue or a climate issue, it is a matter of health, dignity and justice.
The Build Better Lives campaign calls on governments to treat this as the emergency it is. Our homes should be our first line of defence against extreme heat, not places that put our health at risk.
