As temperatures soar above 35C in the latest UK heatwave, Greenpeace are calling for the Government to make sizeable changes to extreme heat plans
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Environmental campaigners in the UK are urging the Government to set out an extreme heat strategy to help support the country as a heatwave grips the nation.
Greenpeace UK is calling on ministers to rethink how the country prepares for summer, warning that extreme heat is no longer a rare inconvenience but a growing threat to public health and critical infrastructure. Already, red and amber warnings have been issued by the Met Office for Wednesday and Thursday, with the potential for significant impacts to health, infrastructure and daily life.
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Met Office analysis has indicated how the situation may worsen in future: Britain could reach peak temperatures of 45C in 2056, with more extreme heatwaves than those of 1976.
Greenpeace said this current heatwave – with temperatures expected to soar above 35C – demands proper legal protections for people most exposed to extreme heat.
The organisation is calling for a new Extreme Heat Strategy that would include legal limits of maximum workplace temperatures and the right to work from home during amber and red heat alerts where possible; a requirement for heat safety plans for schools and hospitals as temperatures get hotter; public cooling centres in libraries, community centres and public buildings; emergency funding to heat-proof schools, hospitals, care homes and public housing. Calls have also been made for a stronger tax on the fossil fuel industry to help fund these measures.
Currently, the UK has no legal maximum temperature for workplaces.
Greenpeace UK said the heatwave should be a ‘wake-up call’ for a country still designed around mild summers, as climate change makes extreme heat more frequent and dangerous.
‘The fossil-fuelled climate crisis is turning once-mild British summers into life-threatening heatwaves,’ said Greenpeace UK’s co-executive director Areeba Hamid. ‘And yet ministers are still acting as if extreme heat were an occasional seasonal quirk, when it is fast becoming a regular and serious public health risk.’
‘When classrooms become ovens, care homes overheat, transport starts to buckle, and workers are forced to toil in dangerous temperatures, it’s clear the country isn’t ready,’ Hamid continued.
