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Climate event on coping with extreme heat cancelled by extreme heat

A London Climate Action Week event on extreme heat has been cancelled due to extreme heat, as experts warn that heatwaves will become more frequent 'as long as emissions continue'

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The Met Office has issued a rare red weather warning in the face of extreme heat(Image: Getty Images)

In an irony not lost on its organisers, a climate event focused on extreme heat has been cancelled because of extreme heat.

The event was due to take place on Wednesday at the Shaw Library at the London School of Economics (LSE) as part of London Climate Action Week. However, it was cancelled after the Met Office issued a red weather warning for extreme heat covering swathes of southern England, including London, from 9am on Wednesday to 9pm on Thursday.

The conference - titled 'Extreme Heat: Improving Governance and Strengthening Action Around the World' - was being hosted by LSEs world-leading Grantham Research Institute alongside partners including the Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance.

It was set to explore the "critical need to improve extreme heat governance globally" and examine how different countries are responding through governance, policy and adaptation measures, as well as the challenges they face.

The cancellation comes after hundreds of schools announced plans to close fully or partially over the coming days because of the extreme heat.

A "heat dome" settling over western Europe could bring temperatures close to 40C by Wednesday, with the latest heatwave expected to surpass the UKs June record of 35.6C, set in Hampshire in 1976.

Announcing the cancellation in a social media post on Tuesday, the Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance said: "Our London Climate Action Week event on extreme heat has been cancelled... due to extreme heat."

"The event venue, like most buildings in London, does not have any cooling mechanisms in place, and we cannot risk the wellbeing of speakers or guests by subjecting everyone to very unpleasant indoor conditions in addition to hot journeys to the venue," it said.

"The magnitude of future impacts from extreme heat will largely depend on global mitigation efforts, local heat governance, and response plans."

The alliance, a partnership of humanitarian, NGO, research and private sector organisations, apologised to everyone planning to attend and urged people in London to stay safe.

It comes after Professor Fredi Otto, a professor of climate science at Imperial College London, told a media briefing that heatwaves will occur more often and with even higher temperatures "as long as emissions continue".

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'This sustained surge in extreme heat would not have happened without human-caused climate change,' Prof Otto said(Image: SWNS)

She said "our homes, infrastructure, and economy are not built to cope with these conditions", adding: "The UK has been built for a climate that just doesnt exist."

Prof Otto added: "Temperatures above 35 degrees used to be extremely rare in the UK. They have now occurred in seven out of the last 12 years, and this sustained surge in extreme heat would not have happened without human-caused climate change."

Dr David Dawson, an associate professor in sustainable and resilient cities at the University of Leeds, said heatwaves are going to become "more frequent and longer", adding that 92 per cent of UK homes could overheat by the 2050s.

A Met Office report published in May found that there is an 86 per cent chance that at least one year between 2026 and 2030 will be hotter than 2024, currently the planet's warmest year on record.

It also found a 91 per cent chance that global temperatures will temporarily exceed 1.5C above pre-industrial levels in at least one of the next five years.

If global warming exceeds 1.5C - the critical limit set by the Paris Agreement - the risk of severe climate impacts increases sharply, including ecosystem damage, species extinction, more extreme weather, food and water insecurity, heat-related deaths, and the loss of ancient ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, causing sea levels to rise dramatically.

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