National Heat Risk Commission highlights failure to prepare for high temperatures after summer of unprecedented heatwaves and wildfires 

The National Heat Risk Commission has today (3 September 2026) pointed to the failure to implement previous recommendations to prepare for high temperatures in its initial report. 

The report, ‘A Heat Circuit Breaker for the UK’, points out: “Heat risk has been catalogued for more than a decade, yet action to address it has been slow”. It notes that “recommendations are plentiful”, but “delivery is absent”.

The report states: “Statutory advisers, parliamentary committees, researchers and practitioners have made numerous well-evidenced recommendations to address heat risk, but these recommendations have not been translated into action. The challenge is therefore no longer one of evidence, but of implementation: understanding what is preventing progress and how delivery can be accelerated. This is the gap that the Commission seeks to address.”

The Commission was launched in March 2026 and is chaired by Emma Howard Boyd, Professor in Practice at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and former Chair of the Environment Agency.

The report indicates that the Commission will “examine practical pathways to implementation, identify priorities for action across sectors, and assess where further policy development is needed”.

The report is published alongside a call for evidence aimed at organisations in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, including businesses, public bodies, institutions, and voluntary and community organisations.

The report identifies a lack of governance as a key barrier. It states: “Heat risk is well documented but poorly governed”. It indicates that governance of flooding includes “a strategy, a lead institution, ministerial accountability, dedicated funding, and defined roles and responsibilities”.

It states: “Yet despite being the single largest climate change-related risk to health in the UK, heat remains among the least governed”.

The Met Office announced earlier this week that summer 2026 was provisionally the warmest since records began, overtaking last summer. Temperatures surpassed 35°C in May, June, July and August for the first time on record. More than 2,800 people are thought to have died from heat-related causes during the May and June heatwaves in England. 

The prolonged heat, combined with a long period of low rainfall, led to widespread drought and destructive wildfires, as well as serious disruption to hospitals, schools and railways. The impacts have been felt across every sector of society, highlighting the growing consequences of extreme heat and the urgent need to strengthen resilience. 

In the report the authors provide a warning to decision makers in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland: “Extreme heat is happening now – and it is happening often and will only get worse for the foreseeable future. We need to recognise the threat and get ahead of it.”

The report highlights 10 existing recommendations where action has significant potential to strengthen heat resilience. The recommendations include: 

• Publishing a national heat resilience strategy with clear accountability. 
• Empowering local action to adapt. Climate adaptation is delivered primarily at the local level.
• Improving heat alerts, as they do not accurately reflect local risk, or reach the most vulnerable.
• Protecting the most vulnerable. It is widely recognised that not everyone will have the ability to adequately cool their homes or adapt to rising temperatures without additional support. 
• Harnessing the power of green and blue infrastructure. Nature-based solutions are among the most cost-effective forms of cooling infrastructure, while also delivering multiple co-benefits, including reducing wildfire risk, improving water management, enhancing biodiversity and supporting public health. 

Emma Howard Boyd CBE, Chair of the National Heat Risk Commission and Professor in Practice at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, said:

“This summer of record-breaking heat, fire and drought must be our wake-up call – for our leaders and for all of us. In early August the country entered its fifth heatwave of the summer. Wildfires destroyed dozens of homes, emergency services came under intense pressure, and millions received an alert warning of further fire risk.

“The extreme heat also placed growing strain on hospitals and public services, disrupted transport and infrastructure, threatened crops and food production, and hit hardest those least able to cope with its effects.

“Looking at the footage of fires and parched landscapes, it is hard not to be taken back to the 40°C heatwave of 2022. The question the public is entitled to ask is simple. What has changed since then?”

““Heatwaves will become hotter, more deadly and more disruptive. Our task is to ensure that the UK is better prepared when they strike.”