There is a somewhat gratifying TikTok trend at the moment where Americans visiting London in a heat wave realize that, yes, British heat does “hit different.”
One tourist says, “it feels as if I’m in a sauna.” Another said that he always thought British people were lying, but “for some reason it just feels like you are melting.” Inevitably, the talk turns to air-conditioning. After all, parts of the US definitely get hotter and just as humid as the UK, but there is usually refuge to be taken in mechanically cooled homes.
In the UK, air-conditioning is rare — except in supermarkets and office buildings — and our housing stock, mostly built before climate change was a real and present threat, is designed to absorb and retain heat rather than keep it out. That is in part because many buildings in the UK and across Europe were built before air-conditioning was available, and historically the main concern was keeping warm in frigid weather.
Illustration: Yusha
As a result, the UK has a real problem with overheating that is only going to get worse as the climate crisis intensifies and elongates heat waves. More than half of homes in the UK suffer from overheating — meaning that the internal temperature exceeds what is comfortable for a certain amount of time, depending on whether the room is a bedroom or not. Under a 2oC warming scenario, which we could reach as early as 2045, that could rise to 90 percent of homes.
I used to live in a Victorian apartment on the top floor. There were multiple occasions where I would watch, sweaty and distressed, the mercury rise above 30oC in the living room and bedroom for most of the day and evening, despite attempts to follow good heat wave protocol: shut the windows and curtains during the day, open everything up when the sun goes down. Working from home was a struggle, getting a good night’s sleep impossible.
My colleagues and friends from hotter climes will likely scoff at the discomfort of Brits. Though heat waves are getting longer and hotter, they do not compare to the sweltering temperatures of other countries. For example, recent heat waves saw temperatures exceed 45oC in parts of Spain and Portugal — a high mercifully not yet seen in the UK. Still, it is important to be attuned to the negative consequences of being poorly adapted to high temperatures — and the UK stands out on this front.
For example, as John Burn-Murdoch recently wrote in the Financial Times, sleep duration, work productivity and cognitive performance drop rapidly when indoor temperatures rise above the low 20oCs. Aggression and violence go up. Mental health suffers. People die.
A recent study from Imperial College London and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) found that an extra 263 Londoners likely died in the recent heat wave between June 23 and July 2, of which two-thirds could be attributed to the climate crisis.
Another study from University College London and LSHTM found that, by the 2070s, annual excess heat deaths in England and Wales could exceed 34,000 in the worst-case scenario of 4.3oC of warming with minimal adaptations.
So, other than working hard to reduce emissions, what should we do?
Adding green spaces and tree cover to cities makes a huge difference. Cities, with the sheer mass of asphalt, concrete and glass, are particularly vulnerable to overheating thanks to the “urban heat island” effect. Studies have shown that the addition of tree canopy cover can reduce heat-related mortality and temperatures. Meanwhile, good public information, such as heat health alerts, clear instructions on how to stay cool and information about local public spaces with air-conditioning, creates resilience within communities.
However, there is a key element missing. Government policy in Britain has focused almost exclusively on making homes warmer. You can currently get help with the cost of switching to a low-carbon heating system or get free or cheaper insulation. There is good reason for this. The cold has traditionally been of greater concern, and with home heating accounting for 18 percent of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2021, these efforts are essential for meeting climate targets and energy security, as well as empowering households to reduce expensive heating bills.
A couple of simple tweaks could help improve homes — and therefore the well-being of residents — in the summer months, too. For example, a highly effective way of reducing the amount of heat that gets trapped in homes is to add shade via external shutters or awnings. Help ought to be available for installing these, particularly for low-income households who tend to be more at risk of overheating. It would certainly improve upon advice to cover windows with yogurt, which might be surprisingly effective for the odd scorching day, but turn into a drain of time and dairy in the long term.
Meanwhile, landlords are not incentivized to improve their homes. New rules will mean that private landlords must meet a certain threshold for energy efficiency by 2030. While this is a very positive and necessary move, there could be scope to expand it to overheating, too. The development of a new metric for overheating risk, similar to an energy performance certificate, could help renters and buyers alike better understand what they are getting into, while opening the door for policy to encourage landlords to add shading and cooling measures.
Though passive means of cooling should be prioritized, it is probably time to start embracing air-conditioning, too — something that is being actively discouraged by government policy. Air-to-air heat pumps are able to both heat and do not provide hot water like a conventional boiler). The UK should rethink that.
There is justified resistance to a wider adoption of air-conditioning in the UK, from concerns about how the grid will handle extra energy demand in the summer to the idea that us Brits simply do not do air-conditioning. A stiff, but sweaty upper lip, you might say.
However, as the grid is upgraded and cleaned up, energy concerns become far less important — particularly if we are able to expand solar power that handily generates electricity when the sun is shining and air-conditioning demand is high. Cultural beliefs might be harder to sway, but in the face of weeks of restless sleep and sticky skin, we might eventually come round to it.
Lara Williams is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering climate change. This column reflects the personal views of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
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