Thirty-Five Degrees

A teacher in Bonnevoie ordered two fans. She followed official ventilation guidelines to the letter. She made sure her pupils had plenty of water. She even provided foot baths with cold water to help them cope. Classroom temperatures still hit 35°C. "There was no way we could work properly," she said. The children were tired, unfocused, and "it was just too hot for all of us."[1]

Vanessa Tosseng, a teacher and president at a school in Bonnevoie, was describing what happened when the recent heatwave struck Luxembourg City. Her experience is not unique. It is what happens when buildings designed for a cooler climate meet a climate that no longer exists.

The council's position

The Luxembourg City council considered retrofitting air conditioning. They decided against it. Paul Galles, alderman for education, cited two concerns: the technical complexity of installation and the high energy consumption. Air conditioning uses a lot of electricity, and at a time when not all of Luxembourg's power is green, "we felt this was not a sustainable choice," Galles explained.[1]

Instead, the city invested in 300 fans for schools to order as needed. The logic was reasonable: fans use a fraction of the electricity, they are easy to deploy, and for a country that until recently rarely saw sustained temperatures above 30°C, they were sufficient. The logic was also wrong.[1]

"We knew change was coming"

Galles acknowledges that officials underestimated how severe and how quickly the heatwaves would worsen. "We knew change was coming, but not the intensity or the speed." For decades, buildings with thick walls have sufficed. Last year, with temperatures around 32 to 35°C, that was no longer enough. Fans became indispensable. This year, even fans were not enough.[1]

The admission is candid, which is unusual for a politician. It is also late. The greening plan unveiled two days ago, the water restrictions announced yesterday, the "not adequately prepared" admission from the Health Minister earlier this month: the pattern is clear. Every institution is arriving at the same conclusion at the same time, having assumed for too long that the climate of the past was a reliable guide to the climate of the future.

Cool rooms

The city has now agreed on additional measures. By next summer, all schools, daycare centres, and nurseries in Luxembourg City are to be equipped with external sun protection, either awnings or trees. "Cool rooms" will be installed in schools: at least one air-conditioned room per school where pupils can retreat. In buildings where heat is a particular problem, especially temporary container classrooms, "there will be more cool rooms, we may even equip nearly every classroom with cooling in the worst cases," Galles stated.[1]

School libraries are seen as ideal locations for cool rooms. Canteens are likely candidates in daycare centres. In emergencies, children or teachers who fall ill from heat can be brought to these cooled spaces. The city also plans to rotate classes so pupils can periodically cool off during hot periods.[1]

The sustainable choice that wasn't

The council's original argument against air conditioning was that it was not sustainable. The argument has a point: air conditioning is energy-intensive, and if the electricity comes from fossil fuels, it contributes to the very warming that makes air conditioning necessary. This is the climate feedback loop that every city in the world is now grappling with.[1]

But sustainability is not only about electricity. It is also about whether children can learn. A classroom at 35°C is not sustainable either. The city has found a compromise: not full air conditioning in every room, but designated cool rooms that can be used when temperatures become dangerous. It is a pragmatic solution, even if it arrived a year later than it should have.