Of course they can afford it, its just a cultural difference.

> 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.

Many Europeans have a mild climate where the few days AC is really better than no AC isn't enough to be worth it. Particularly if you stick to western Europe when you mean Europe, (eastern Europe has a harsher climate but also still coming out from soviet days and so doesn't have the wealth needed to put AC everywhere though some are getting close)

> 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.

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.

And a lot of people in the northern US also don’t have AC. It just wasn’t necessary until somewhat recently. Had little to do with affordability.

> Many Europeans cannot even afford proper AC in summer and heating in winter.

A lot of people don't need AC, and heating is a non-issue almost everywhere.

We haven't needed this for the most time. I'm not spending on AC for a few days per year where it's really hot while it's really not most of of the year.

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.

Depends on whether you're talking about Europe the continent or eg the EU, though "many" if of course a vague enough claim to be technically true for any corner of the world.

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.

> burning fossil fuels to run AC

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.

It’s not ideal because peak temperatures are in the late afternoon, when the sun is lower in the sky. And continues into early evening.

Speaking of notions coming from highly dubious places....