{"id":88075,"date":"2026-09-03T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T23:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/?post_type=news&p=88075"},"modified":"2026-09-03T00:30:46","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T23:30:46","slug":"national-heat-risk-commission-highlights-failure-to-prepare-for-high-temperatures-after-summer-of-unprecedented-heatwaves-and-wildfires","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/news\/national-heat-risk-commission-highlights-failure-to-prepare-for-high-temperatures-after-summer-of-unprecedented-heatwaves-and-wildfires\/","title":{"rendered":"National Heat Risk Commission\u00a0highlights failure to prepare for high temperatures after\u00a0summer of unprecedented heatwaves\u00a0and wildfires\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report highlights 10 existing recommendations where action has significant potential to strengthen heat resilience. The recommendations include: <\/p>\n\n\n\n