Committee publication · Correspondence · 26 June 2026
Letter to Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs relating to Extreme weather: heat, 26 June
From: Environmental Audit Committee
Inquiry: Extreme weather: heat
Summary
The Environmental Audit Committee writes to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs following a 3 June 2026 oral evidence session on extreme heat. The Committee sets out observations on climate warming, heat's human and economic impacts, and governance gaps, then poses eight questions on workplace temperatures, public building overheating, school timetables, housing standards, vulnerable household cooling, the Fourth National Adaptation Programme's development, targets, and cross-departmental engagement with the Climate Change Committee's assessment.
Key findings
- Current rate of global warming is unprecedented in at least 10,000 years and human-induced; Europe is the fastest warming continent and heat extremes are outpacing predictions.
- Over 3,000 excess deaths due to heat occurred in summer 2022; this could rise to 10,000 by mid-century without adaptation. Heat impacts span physical and mental health, sleep, learning, and productivity.
- By mid-century, 92% of existing homes will overheat without adaptation; retrofitting on a huge scale will be required across public estate and housing stock, with estimated annual investment needs of £11bn across sectors.
- Climate Change Committee's assessment of the current National Adaptation Programme (NAP3) is 'far short of what is needed'; CCC estimates costs of inaction at £60–260bn annually by 2050 (1–5% of GDP).
- CCC recommends NAP4 establish meaningful adaptation objectives with targets and assigned ownership, create delivery plans with resources, monitor delivery, and improve adaptation tools and skills.
Tone
CriticalTopics
Key actors
Environmental Audit Committee, Emma Reynolds MP, Climate Change Committee, Met Office, UK Health Security Agency, Emma Howard Boyd CBE, Rowan Sutton, Swenja Surminski
Notable line
“… the UK has been built for a climate that no longer exists (Q10). We heard how the impacts of heat can be felt across the public estate such as in overheating …”
Key Quotes
“The current temperatures and the rate of warming are unprecedented in at least the last 10,000 years, which is essentially the history of human civilisation. We have established with compelling evidence that that is because of the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.”
“… the UK has been built for a climate that no longer exists”
“… far short of what is needed”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗