What happens when Climate Action Week coincides with a record-breaking heatwave?
I had expected to be writing up some lessons learned from London Climate Action Week.
I’d enjoyed Reset Connect North in March, and was looking forward to the biggest southern version. I’d booked a few other events for extra networking and knowledge-gathering. A lot of talk, really, but with luck it’d be productive and informative talk.
But instead, I read the warnings of extreme heat and travel disruption, did an informal EHS risk assessment, and changed my plans. I wasn’t going any further than the shadiest corner of the garden.
The temperature there still topped 31 degrees, which was plenty for me.
Now, I don’t deal well with heat and humidity. If I had gone down the Great Wen, I’d have been sweaty, sleep-deprived and short-tempered – none of which are conducive to effective networking.
Sure, the conference venue was air-conditioned, but my borrowed bedroom wasn’t, and cross-London transport rarely improves my sense of wellness. Then there was the challenge of getting there and back on time, as LNER was telling passengers not to travel. And indeed, the trains back north were either cancelled or severely delayed as the temperature records for June were repeatedly broken.
We all know that other countries get much hotter. The UK’s problem is that our infrastructure, from rail to housing, just isn’t built for the extremes that come with an ever-hotter global climate.
But no, this isn’t “the new normal”. It’s only going to get worse until every nation acts to reach net zero emissions.
Stern lessons
I hadn’t registered for the LSE event on extreme heat governance which, to the wry amusement of many, was cancelled because of the extreme heat.
Some called that ironic but, in classical terms, it was really more tragic. Think of Cassandra, whose accurate warnings weren’t heeded by the Trojan powers-that-be.
The LSE event featured Nicholas Stern, author of the landmark review on the economics of climate change. Two decades ago, Stern showed that the costs of emissions reduction were at least an order of magnitude less than the costs of business as usual.
The details of that calculation has changed since 2006, of course. We’re now locked in to average heating of at least 1.5 degrees, and are paying the costs of that. On the brighter side, all the modelling shows that the cost of reaching net zero emissions on a timescale that should limit heating to 2 degrees or so will be a lot less expensive than originally thought.
The Climate Change Committee estimates an average net annual cost for the UK of just 0.2 per cent of GDP. That’s less than a tenth of military spending, or a rounding error in the national budget.
Action time and vision
As the nation sweated on the Wednesday of Climate Action Week, the CCC presented its annual report to Parliament on the UK’s progress on reducing emissions. I read it in my shady bower, and tried not to sweat too much.
The report is OK, but not exactly glowing. Westminster isn’t moving quickly enough in key areas, especially in supporting the electrification of domestic heating, transport and industry. Those are areas that could quickly reduce day-to-day costs for many.
Parliament also voted into law the seventh carbon budget, as recommended by the CCC. That sets a legally binding target for emissions over 2038-42. And yes, some reality-denying parties voted against it.
The target is 535 million tonnes of CO2e, including aviation and shipping, over the five years. That’s an average 107MT a year, an 87 per cent reduction from the 1990 levels used as a benchmark by the Climate Change Act.
I think it’s more useful to look at such targets in relation to current emissions. We’ve already cut territorial emissions by more than half since 1990, which is a decent start.
The total for 2024 was around 414Mt, so we have to cut that by about 75 per cent in the next 15 years.
That is achievable. There’s a wealth of modelling by the CCC, Energy Systems Catapult and others setting out how it can be done. The main thing needed is political will.
The extreme heat during London Climate Action Week should at least have helped focus minds on the problem. We need emissions reduction as mitigation, and we urgently need investment in adaptation.
It’s not too hot for climate action. But it is too late to just be talking about it.