With homes, schools, hospitals and workplaces dangerously unprepared for the current extreme heat, which has already resulted in thousands of excess UK deaths, a coalition of environmental and anti-poverty organisations has written to ministers demanding immediate action on adaptations like air conditioning and faster climate measures, to prevent accelerating crises and worse outcomes in future.

In a joint letter to ministers [1], the groups – including the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace UK and WWF – say the scale of impacts already unfolding “should be a wakeup call,” as heat-related deaths reach over 2,700 this year [2], a figure that could rise up to 10,000 a year across the UK by 2050 without urgent action.

Heat is costing the UK economy: 11 million labour hours were lost in 2022 due to heat exposure, and there is mounting pressure on power, transport and water systems the country depends on.

The pain is also not being shared equally. Renters, low income households and ethnic minority communities are far more likely to live in homes prone to overheating. Outdoor workers, older people, disabled people and children pay the highest price.

The groups have called on the government to act now, including through:

• Supporting installation of immediate cooling measures, such as shutters and shading and a faster rollout of air conditioning, backed by solar power for schools, hospitals and care homes.
• Setting maximum workplace temperature thresholds, putting the onus on employers to protect their staff.
• A national network of genuinely cool public spaces and refuges from the heat, eg using existing libraries and community centres.

Crucially, the letter makes clear that emergency preparedness cannot be separated from the underlying cause. The groups state that “every additional fraction of a degree of warming will increase the risks”. Immediate protection for people this summer must go hand in hand with a concerted move away from fossil fuels and the delivery of net zero, to minimise the threat of these crises worsening as each year passes.

Blanche Shackleton, interim executive director at Green Alliance, said:

“People are suffering from dangerous heat right now, in homes, schools and workplaces that were never built to cope. Ministers must act now. We need cool spaces, safer workplaces and better protected homes. But short term measures won’t be enough on their own: net zero is a protective policy for people and the economy, the faster we shift away from fossil fuels, the sooner we will get these crises under control and the costs of coping with them will ease.”

ENDS 

Notes to editors 

1. The full text of the letter is available here.
2. Research being released on Monday 13 July by Imperial College London, the Met Office and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine estimates more than 2,700 excess deaths from heat-related causes occurred during the May and June heatwaves in England and Wales.

For interview requests or further comment, please contact: Sarah Williams at Green Alliance on 0775 1682 400