Climate Committee urges UK cooling for 40C heatwaves by 2050
Britain’s climate plans need a major reset, the Climate Change Committee said on Wednesday, warning that heatwaves could exceed 40C across all parts of the UK by 2050. The committee said homes, schools, hospitals, care homes and workplaces will need cooling and heat-protection measures as global heating intensifies.
Julia King, chair of the committee’s adaptation subcommittee, said extreme heat is the most immediate threat to life in the climate risks it identified. She said cooling should be rolled out at scale, and that the government should set a maximum temperature for working indoors and outdoors.
Julia King on cooling
King said: “Extreme heat is certainly the most deadly of the climate impacts on the UK, so we need to see cooling rolled out at scale” and added: “Sometimes this will mean shading, but sometimes it will mean air conditioning. And either way, we’ve got to get serious about protecting our most vulnerable people in hospitals, in care homes, and in schools.”
The committee said air conditioning should be installed in all care homes and hospitals within the next 10 years, and in all schools within 25 years. It also said people could choose to have one cool room to use during heatwaves rather than install cooling everywhere.
Homes built for another climate
The report said British homes will need air conditioning to survive predicted levels of global heating, with about nine in 10 UK homes likely to overheat. It said the UK should prepare for 2C of global heating by 2050, after attempts to limit warming to 1.5C above preindustrial levels under the Paris agreement appeared likely to fail.
The warning sits alongside a stark record from 2022, when temperatures above 40C in the UK resulted in about 3,000 excess deaths. The committee said longer periods of hot weather could lead to an additional 10,000 heat-related deaths a year.
Flooding and wider strain
The report tied the heat warning to other climate risks facing the UK. It said 7m UK properties are at risk of flooding, and that figure could increase by 40% by 2050 without action. Peak flow in rivers could be 45% higher by 2050, while sea levels are expected to rise by 20cm to 45cm.
Emma Howard Boyd said: “Heat resilience cannot continue to be treated as an afterthought” and that it “belongs alongside flood preparedness and water security at the very top of the national resilience agenda and the wider prosperity of the UK.” Sam Alvis said: “We are going to have to get used to being a hot country, which is quite a mindset shift for the UK” and added: “Air conditioning is actually a great pair for solar from an energy system point of view because it matches supply and demand, and your aircon is only going to be needed above certain temperatures.”
The report also noted that air conditioning accounts for about 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions, while the climate crisis is costing the UK about £60bn a year, or about 2% of GDP. The next step is political rather than technical: ministers will have to decide whether to turn the committee’s adaptation warnings into building, workplace and public-service rules before hotter summers arrive.
