UK Homes Are Unfit for Rising Temperatures, Climate Adviser Says

“The UK was built for a climate that no longer exists today and will be increasingly distant in years to come,” the Climate Change Committee, the UK’s independent climate change adviser, said in a new major report.

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British homes will need air conditioning to survive predicted levels of global warming, a major report has warned.

An estimated 4 million homes in the country now have air conditioning, double the figure from three years ago, the Guardian recently reported. But that is not enough to protect people from rapidly rising temperatures and what are becoming more frequent and intense heatwaves, the Climate Change Committee, the UK’s independent climate change adviser, said in the report.

The Committee estimated that some 92% of existing homes are likely to overheat during a heatwave, disproportionately threatening those most vulnerable to heat. Among them are children, the elderly, pregnant women, as well as those living in inadequate or poorly ventilated housing. “The UK was built for a climate that no longer exists today and will be increasingly distant in years to come,” it said, as it urged the country to prepare for warming levels 2C above pre-industrial levels by mid-century. The world is currently on track for 2.6-3.1C of warming over the course of this century, according to UN estimates.

Keeping people safe and lowering heat-related mortality rates requires stepping up cooling in buildings through both active measures, such as installing air conditioning, as well as passive cooling measures, like natural shading, according to the report. This is especially true for people’s homes, care homes, and hospitals.

The Committee called on the government to install air conditioning in all care homes and hospitals within the next decade, and in all schools within the next 25 years. It also advised creating at least one cool room in at least the 30% most vulnerable urban households.

Because air conditioning systems come with a heavy environmental footprint, heat pumps, which provide both low-carbon heating and cooling, should be considered especially in new builds, the report added. But heat pumps are rarely installed in the UK for reasons including high upfront installation costs despite government subsidies; high electricity prices relative to gas, which increases running costs; and lack of the necessary insulation required for these systems to run efficiently, especially in older homes.

People without access to air conditioning – a huge proportion of the world’s population – are particularly at risk during extreme heat events. While about 90% of households in the US and 60% in China have some sort of air conditioning system, the number is worryingly lower in rapidly warming places like Europe (10%) and India (8%), the most populous country in the world. In sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the number is even lower.

‘Astonishing’ Heat

The UK is currently experiencing an exceptionally early heatwave that is shattering records. The country set a new daily heat record for May on Monday and again on Tuesday, when temperatures reached 35.1C in London. The record for the highest daily minimum temperature in May was also provisionally broken for a third night in a row on Wednesday, the Met Office said.

Climate change is dramatically increasing the frequency of extreme high temperatures in the UK, according to the national forecaster. Peaks of 30C used to be a rare occurrence in the country, and exceptionally rare in May – reached only a handful of times since 1900. In December, the Met Office warned that 2026 will likely be among the country’s four warmest years on record.

“This record-breaking heat has the fingerprints of climate change all over it,” said Friederike Otto, Professor of Climate Science, Imperial College London. “Seeing 35C in the UK during spring is absolutely astonishing, but the science is very clear – climate change makes these heatwaves hotter, longer, and far more frequent,” Otto added, pointing out that such high temperatures “were once exceptional even at the height of summer.”