Comment & Analysis
With temperatures in England in 2022 soaring above 40°C for the first time, and 2023 now confirmed as the world’s hottest year on record, there can be no doubt that the world is heating up. The temperatures we have been experiencing in the UK pose a serious risk to the health, wellbeing and prosperity of the nation. The urgency to adapt to a warming climate is clear, and the time for action is now.
Environmental Audit Committee Chair, Rt Hon Philip Dunne MP summarised the situation, saying:
“High temperatures are costing the UK economy £60 billion a year: so measures to address the risks from overheating are simply a no-brainer. There are a number of relatively simple ways to mitigate overheating risk, such as installing shutters, increasing the size of green spaces and using reflective paint on roofs. Yet none of these measures are being rolled out at scale. There is now a real opportunity to focus on these measures in tandem with improving the energy efficiency of the country’s homes in a new national retrofit programme.”
The report is a welcome call for increased government action on heat resilience and sustainable cooling. The focus on a hierarchical approach to cooling starting with ‘fabric first’, then passive cooling and nature-based solutions, before considering energy consuming active mechanical methods, is a useful framing.
We were pleased to see the committee taking onboard a key point from our submitted evidence regarding the importance of humidity in determining the human response to extreme temperatures. Humidity is a significant contributor to how we experience thermal comfort, and impacts on our ability to sweat, and therefore cool, and its effects are widely underappreciated. A recommendation was made to the Met Office and UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) in the report to incorporate the effects of humidity into weather forecasts and heat-health alerts. In our view, one simple and beneficial way to implement this could be to build on the ‘feels like temperature’ approach already used to convey the effect of the wind chill factor.
Other highlights included:
- Acknowledgement of the IMechE’s point regarding the importance of robust maintenance and disposal practises to minimise the potential impacts of F-gas leakage. This is often a widely overlooked activity which will be essential in delivering a sustainable and resilient cooling provision.
- A lack of skills required to deliver heat adaptation measures at scale. This is an issue we highlighted in our ‘Adapting industry to withstand increasing temperatures and future heatwaves’ report last year.
- Recommendations to expand urban green spaces, particularly in disadvantaged areas, which not only bring climate adaptation advances but have the potential to boost biodiversity and wellbeing.
- Recognition of the potential of public ‘cooling centres’ and a recommendation that UKHSA evaluate their potential use as a policy response, particularly with a view to developing a suite of practical initiatives which can be taken to support populations that are particularly vulnerable to extreme heat.
However, although these points are a positive contribution to moving the UK forward in preparing for extreme temperatures, commenting on the report IMechE Fellow Dr Tim Fox said:
“The output of the inquiry focusses on domestic dwellings / residential properties and whilst that represents a large and important segment of UK building stock for human comfort and health, it misses out the substantial component of space cooling needs in public (ie hospitals, health centres etc.), commercial and industrial buildings. It also misses areas of critical societal importance in cooling provision, such as its use in food supply and the distribution of vaccines and medicines as well as industrial processes and our digital infrastructure, all of which require a similar focus on sustainability and resilience. A follow-on inquiry should be instigated to look into these areas which are vital to the food security, public health and economic productivity of the UK.”
What is next?
Looking ahead, as part of the Global Cooling Pledge which was signed by the UK last November at COP28, the government has a commitment to produce a national cooling action plan.
The committee recommended that the government appoint a lead Minister for Heat Resilience to act as a focal point and drive forward coordinated action, a call the Institution supports. The Government’s response to the inquiry is due by the 31 March 2024 – so watch this space!
Read our report: Adapting industry to withstand rising temperatures and future heatwaves