\n<\/p>\n
The UK government is facing increasingly urgent calls for action to protect people against the intensifying effects of the climate crisis.<\/p>\n
With the country in the grip of the worst heatwave ever recorded in western Europe \u2013 a direct result of global heating \u2013 the chair of parliament\u2019s environmental audit committee warned ministers of the urgent threat and that the UK was falling \u201cfar short of what is needed\u201d.<\/p>\n
Toby Perkins MP said a significant number of deaths was likely as a result of the current heatwave: previous heatwaves have killed thousands. He also warned of \u201cdevastating\u201d impacts on hospitals, care homes and schools, as well as transport, water, food and IT systems.<\/p>\n
Perkins demanded answers from the environment secretary, Emma Reynolds, on how the government planned to tackle overheating in buildings and for its views on establishing maximum workplace temperatures, prescribing air conditioning for vulnerable people and changing school timetables.<\/p>\n
Others have warned of danger to children in baking classrooms and of losses of hundreds of millions of pounds to the economy.<\/p>\n
The highest maximum temperature record for June was broken twice this week, peaking at 36.7C at Merryfield, Somerset on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis week parts of the UK are facing a level of extreme heat that was once unthinkable,\u201d said Perkins. \u201cThe effects of such extreme heat can be disruptive and devastating. Economic productivity will be hit, but more importantly we will likely see a significant number of deaths as a direct result of the current heatwave.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThe evidence could not be clearer that extreme heat is an urgent threat to the UK. Yet the government is currently falling \u2018far short of what is needed\u2019, according to its independent climate advisers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Climate Change Committee has warned for more than a decade that the UK\u2019s plans to protect people from rapidly worsening extreme weather are inadequate. It estimates that 92% of existing homes will overheat within about 20 years. In May, the CCC said the UK was \u201cbuilt for a climate that no longer exists\u201d and needed urgent changes to survive global heating.<\/p>\n
\u201cTaking action carries a significant cost,\u201d said Perkins. \u201cBut the cost of doing nothing is far, far greater.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emma Howard Boyd, the chair of the National Heat Risk Commission and at the London School of Economics, said: \u201cThis week\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
The UK is poorly prepared to deal with these extreme heat events, she said: \u201cIt 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than a thousand schools have been closed due to the heatwave. Analysis by Global Witness found that the average temperature at 3pm on Tuesday was almost 33C (91.4F) in London and more than 31C in the West Midlands, East Midlands, southeast, south-west and east of England. It also showed that more than 1,200 schools were in areas where outdoor temperatures breached 34C.<\/p>\n
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Sign up to Down to Earth<\/span><\/p>\n The planet’s most important stories. Get all the week’s environment news – the good, the bad and the essential<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s frightening to think of teachers and pupils trying to work and learn in swelteringly hot classrooms,\u201d said Flossie Boyd, at Global Witness. \u201cThis heatwave is a reminder of why we need climate adaptation now \u2013 to cool down our schools, and keep children safe.<\/p>\n \u201cInvestment in climate-friendly cooling measures, renewables that don\u2019t heat our planet, and shade for our playgrounds is vital. These measures should be funded by taxing the fossil fuel polluters who drove this extreme heat crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n Hospitals in England have also been declaring critical incidents as medical equipment and IT fail in the heat and sleep-deprived staff work on sweltering wards. The heatwave has also caused a surge in admissions and people arriving at A&E, causing severe overcrowding in some places.<\/p>\n The climate minister, Katie White, told MPs on Wednesday: \u201cIf anyone still thinks that climate change is a problem for tomorrow, they should step outside today. We are upgrading transport, upgrading industry and upgrading infrastructure that in many cases was designed for a different century and a different economy.\u201d<\/p>\n In response to the letter from Perkins, a government spokesperson said: \u201cWe are working across government to carefully consider the Climate Change Committee\u2019s latest recommendations [from May] in relation to climate adaptation.\u201d<\/p>\n The spokesperson said the government was already taking action by investing in clean power, ensuring new homes are designed to minimise unwanted heat and launching an adaptation advice service for local authorities.<\/p>\n The national adaptation programme published in 2023 was called \u201cvery weak\u201d by experts. \u201cIt is imperative that the next iteration \u2013 due in 2028 \u2013 truly is a step change if we are to avoid the worst of the impacts from a changing climate,\u201d said Perkins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The UK government is facing increasingly urgent calls for action to protect people against the intensifying effects of the climate crisis. With the country in the grip of the worst heatwave ever recorded in western Europe \u2013 a direct result of global heating \u2013 the chair of parliament\u2019s environmental audit committee warned ministers of the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[4308,2273,587,558,104,5117,265,322],"class_list":{"0":"post-50687","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-act","9":"tag-devastating","10":"tag-extreme","11":"tag-government","12":"tag-heat","13":"tag-heatwaves","14":"tag-impact","15":"tag-urged"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/50688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}