Response to heatwave

Commenting on the Met Office’s Red Extreme Heat Warning for large parts of England this week, 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 Chair of the National Heat Risk Commission, said: “This week’s extreme temperatures risk losses to the economy of hundreds of millions of pounds due to lower productivity and infrastructure failures. More concerningly it will cause the deaths of hundreds of people across the country. This is not normal. The UK is poorly prepared to deal with these extreme heat events, even though scientists have been warning that they are growing in frequency and intensity. Many of our homes and workplaces overheat because they are poorly designed. It is time for us to treat this growing threat with the urgency it requires and make ourselves much more resilient to these extreme heat events.”

Bob Ward, Policy and Communications Director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Chair of the London Climate Ready Partnership, said: “These extreme heat events will are becoming more frequent and intense due to climate change, and will continue to increase until the world reaches net zero emissions of greenhouse gases. On Wednesday, when hundreds of vulnerable people across the country will be dying from extreme heat , MPs will be voting on the Seventh Carbon Budget, which would set a target of cutting our emissions by 87 per cent compared with 1990, in line with the 2050 net zero goal. Reform and the Conservatives have already indicated that they will oppose it, apparently content for the British people to face ever-growing harm and damage from extreme heat and other climate change impacts. MPs should back the Seventh Carbon Budget and support net zero to stop as soon as possible these growing impacts.”