“”Energy precariousness of summer affects more and more people and it has become urgent, imperative, to act quickly“, said on Wednesday before the press Christophe Robert, general delegate of the Foundation (ex-Father Pierre-Pierre), while a heat wave crosses France.

“”Not long ago, energy precariousness in France was treated only from the point of view of cold (…). However, with global warming (…), millions of dwellings turn into real kettles and become uninhabitable for several weeks a year“He added.

In his third study on the subject, entitled “Hot in it!”, The Foundation recalls that 42% of French people suffered from heat in their accommodation in 2024, even though summer was not particularly scorching.

The feeling varies very strongly according to the weather: in 2022, the year during which the summer had been particularly hot, 59% of French people declared that they had suffered from heat at home.

“”Compiling these figures which serve us as indicators is a way for us to get out of this impression of natural phenomenon, and to show that the dead people of the heat wave are partly because they lived in housing that did not protect them from strong heat“Explained Maider Olivier, responsible for advocacy climate.

Summer energy precariousness is also characterized by “strong inequalities”, 48% of 18-24 year olds having thus suffered from heat at home in 2024.

Tenants, modest households, the elderly and the inhabitants of the cities, including working -class neighborhoods, are the most exposed.

“”In housing where temperatures exceed the standards of the World Health Organization, ie 26 degrees per night and 28 per day, people are exposed to a worsening of cardiovascular, respiratory, discomfort, sleep or concentration problems“recalled Christophe Robert.

1.1 billion per year

In the summer of 2024, 3,700 people died of the consequences of heat, including three quarters aged 75 and over, according to Public Health France.

Between 2017 and 2024, 34,000 people died from the consequences of heat, according to the same source.

However, one in three housing (35%) in France is “a kettle”, according to the Ignes industrial union, while 31% of the dwellings whose DPE is classified A, the best note, are deemed “insufficient” with regard to summer habitability.

The renovations are not all efficient: “A global renovation can bring out a housing status, even reach a DPE A or B, while remaining or becoming unlocable in summer”, notes the Foundation.

Faced with this, only 60% of dwellings are fully equipped with solar protections, indicate the authors, who assess at 1.1 billion euros per year the need for public funding between 2025 and 2040 to install air brewers and shutters on each accommodation.

To accelerate the protection of populations, a bill (PPL) “zero housing kettle” associating the deputies of seven political groups will be deposited “in the coming days” in the National Assembly.

The text proposes to integrate the overheating of housing in the definition of energy precariousness, to prohibit electricity cuts throughout the year to be able to use fans in summer, or to display the note “summer comfort” of the energy performance diagnosis (DPE) on real estate ads.

Ultimately, a summer habitability threshold should also “be integrated into the decency of housing”. The Foundation offers in particular that, by 2030, “the worst housing kettles are equipped, even renovated to cope with heat, in order to be rented”.

The deputies finally propose to soften the opinions rendered by the architects of the buildings of France to facilitate the installation of solar protections.

The text could be examined in the fall.