Announced this week, the new body will investigate and work on solutions to soaring thermometers — including public and environmental health.
Based at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science, the National Heat Risk Commission is chaired by Emma Howard Boyd CBE, the former Chair of the Environment Agency and London Climate Resilience Review, commissioned by the Mayor of London. The post will formally begin on 1st April 2026.
Working independently to the UK Government, the Commission will deliver recommendations on how local and national leaders can reduce threat to life, livelihoods and ecosystems linked to global warming. Experts with backgrounds in public health, wildfires, meteorology, and economic productivity are all involved, with further members to be added later this year.
‘Extreme heat is not an equal-opportunity killer. It disproportionately affects the most vulnerable in our society – those in social housing, the elderly, the very young, people with underlying health conditions and pregnant women,’ said Howard Boyd CBE.
‘This Commission will provide the roadmap to ensure the UK is resilient to high temperatures without compromising our economic or climate goals,’ she continued. ‘The Government must make adapting to extreme heart a priority or additional lives will be lost.’
One of the first tasks for the Commission will be to publish an interim report in the coming months, which will be followed by a final ‘landmark’ analysis in June 2027. Both will feature recommendations for ‘better homes, better living, and better working’ in a warming climate.
‘Several assessments have shown that the UK is suffering growing damage from rising temperatures, including hundreds of deaths each year and big hits to the economy through reduced productivity in overheating workplaces, particularly in London,’ said Bob Ward, Policy and Communications Director at the Grantham Research Institute and Chair of the London Climate Ready Partnership.
‘The response from national and local government has not yet been sufficient and we hope the Commission will help to make our resilience to high temperatures more of a national priority,’ he added. ‘Emma Howard Boyd is acknowledged as one of the world’s leading experts on climate change adaptation and resilience. We are delighted that she has accepted the invitation to Chair the Commission.’
Image: Zoltan Tasi / Unsplash
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