The Climate Change Committee’s (CCC) landmark ‘A Well Adapted UK’ report issued a grave warning: ‘The UK was built for a climate that no longer exists today and will be increasingly distant in years to come’: 92% of existing homes could overheat, drier summers will make droughts more widespread, and it is the most vulnerable in society who will bear the highest costs.
As the UK and Europe face another record-breaking heatwave and red and amber heat warnings remaining for weeks, we asked JUST Centre researchers what a fair and equitable adaptation response must entail to ensure communities can safely live, learn, work and travel in the face of extreme temperatures.
Housing and retrofit
Lucie Middlemiss: “In the UK our homes are not well set up to cope with the heat, as many people are experiencing this week. Home retrofit efforts often concentrate on improving winter warmth, rather than reducing overheating in the summer. Exposure to heat can affect people’s ability to study and work, because of its effects on health and wellbeing.
In previous research, we found that people in Spain, for instance, felt exhausted and lethargic from prolonged exposure to heat in summer, and that this contributed to poor wellbeing. More hot weather is a particular concern for people who spend a lot of time at home, whose health is more likely to be affected by the heat, or who have no access to a cooler space. From a justice perspective this is a massive challenge, because there is so much work to do.
Providing cool spaces in the community (in libraries or community centres) is a first step, but a more concerted effort to adapt buildings for hot weather is also needed. A just approach needs to take the differences in climate within the UK, as well as the heat island effect in cities, acting in the hottest places, and for those that are most vulnerable first.”
Children and education
Harriet Thew: “In addition to being vulnerable to heat-related illness in their homes, many children face exposure to extreme heat in educational environments. According to the CCC’s new report, overheating classrooms significantly impact children’s educational development through health-related conditions, loss of concentration and lost learning time including through school closures. Playgrounds ill-suited to hot weather put children’s physical and mental health at risk through heat exposure and reduced opportunities for physical activity and play.
A vulnerability-led approach is required with significant infrastructural investment and adaptation of educational environments which prioritises the creation of cool, safe, shaded and ventilated spaces to learn and to play, particularly for early years children and those with heat-exacerbated medical conditions. Green spaces, outdoor classrooms and indoor passive cooling measures are preferable to energy-intensive cooling infrastructures. Timetables and learning activities should be adjusted and resources provided to ensure children are not disproportionately impacted by school absences.
Children and educators should be taught about heat-related health risks and climate change adaptation as part of a broad transdisciplinary climate change education including community engagement projects. Consideration of the impacts of rising temperatures in other countries and on non-humans should also be included. A range of governmental guidance is available, such as the UK Health Security Agency (2024) guidance on looking after children and those in early years settings before and during hot weather.”
Cities and urban environments
Liz Edwards: “Extreme heat affects urban populations unevenly, often exacerbating existing social and health inequalities. The most vulnerable urban citizens include low-income households, elderly adults (especially those living alone), people experiencing homelessness, and individuals with disabilities or chronic health conditions.
These groups face increased risks of heat-related illness due to a combination of factors, including limited access to cooling resources, inadequate or poorly ventilated housing, restricted mobility, pre-existing health conditions, and less flexible employment arrangements that may require continued exposure to high temperatures.
A justice-based response should recognise the social, economic and environmental factors that increase risk to extreme heat within urban populations. Along with other measures, we need to ensure equitable access to forms of public social infrastructure that can act as cooling spaces (many of which have been impacted by austerity in the last decade), and that communities most affected have the opportunity to influence decision-making in this area to ensure responses adequately meet their needs.”
Legacies of austerity
Alex Nurse: “Local authority budgets have been severely hamstrung by over a decade of austerity, and an increasing pressure to statutory functions (e.g. adult social care) within that budget envelope. This means that both mitigation (and now adaptation) measures which can reduce the urban heat island effect such as sustainable urban transport, and urban greening have not been delivered at the scale needed.
A justice-based response should start with the people and places most exposed to extreme heat. We also need to think about adaption (reducing the effects of heat in the here and now) and mitigation (recognising that there is worse to come if we continue to do nothing). Retrofit for homes (cooler in the summer/warmer in the winter) are part of that activity, but urban greening which can actively lower temperatures across the day should be a key focus.”
Built and social infrastructures
Stefan Bouzarovski: “As I was heading off to London for a workshop on, among other topics, very apt issues of energy security and climate, I spent the day moving across a wide range of built and social infrastructures that dealt with the hot weather in unequal degrees: from an air-conditioned meeting room that was in fact an artificially cooled glasshouse, to historic buildings that struggled to provide a comfortable working environment. This highlighted how remote working offers some real advantages in such situations - a form of social infrastructure that counters the inadequacies of our built infrastructure.
Outside of green spaces, I found it striking how few shaded areas there were, and how much more difficult it was to function in their absence, in the extreme heat under direct sunlight. A solar-powered canopy above the scorching forecourt of Euston station would seem like a clear win. The station provides water bottle refill stations, but they are hidden away at the end of the concourse; and the station staff I asked didn’t know where they were. Having employees who are well trained in adverse events alongside providing the necessary facilities brings together social and built infrastructure.
Climate change, energy demand, mobility and everyday experience are inseparable from the design and functioning of our social and built infrastructures, revealing a fragile system whose strengths and shortcomings are felt most acutely in moments of environmental stress.”
Image credit: Alastair Johnstone-Hack / Climate Visuals
