As Europe's record-breaking heat wave continues and excess deaths in France climb past 1,300, a Paris official says Americans bear responsibility for the crisis because of emissions and air conditioning.

Audrey Pulvar, Paris' deputy mayor for international relations, lashed out at American tourists and influencers who had mocked the city for its lack of widespread air conditioning as temperatures soared past 104 degrees Fahrenheit.

'OMG, this is so rich.'

"Dear American journalists and social media 'influencers': for days, some of you have been criticising and making fun of Paris because the city does not have A/C in every room. ... OMG, this is so rich!" she wrote on Instagram.

She argued the U.S., which she claims is the world's second-largest greenhouse gas emitter, bears a "significant amount of responsibility responsibility" for the warming driving the crisis, noting American cities are roughly 90% air-conditioned. "So please, enough with the lecture. Just start doing your part."

France has recorded at least 1,300 excess deaths since June 21, according to Sante Publique France, with officials warning the count could climb higher.

About 15,000 elderly people died in France's 2003 heat wave, though air conditioning still hasn't caught on nationwide. As of June 25, officials had confirmed at least 55 drowning deaths — a toll likely to keep climbing — after many have sought relief in unsupervised waterways.

Paris went so far as to ban public alcohol consumption on streets and in parks to "preserve emergency services and allow medics to concentrate on taking care of the most vulnerable."

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Dimitar DILKOFF/AFP/Getty Images

Only about a quarter of French households have air conditioning, versus roughly half in Spain and Italy and 90% in the U.S. and Japan. The French have long associated air conditioning with illness, attributing colds to "thermal shock" from sudden temperature changes, according to GB News.

With Parisians sleeping in parks and booking hotel rooms to escape the heat, even traditionally AC-skeptical politicians — including France's Green Party — have conceded wider adoption may now be unavoidable.

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright drew fire days earlier, telling a London conference that "cold is a vastly larger killer than heat is," citing deaths tied to high energy prices after Russia's 2022 Ukraine invasion.

On Europe's air conditioning scarcity specifically, Wright said a "shale gas revolution" in the U.K. could have cut electricity bills and avoided the shortage altogether.

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