Air-con will be ‘essential’ for one major reason | UK | News

Air conditioning will become “inevitable” for millions of Britons within a generation as summer temperatures push beyond the limits the country’s homes, hospitals and schools can tolerate, a senior government climate adviser has warned.

Baroness Brown of the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) made the stark prediction as the body published a major new report on how Britain needs to adapt to more intense flooding, heat and drought. He said cooling measures now need to be “introduced on a large scale”; This was a significant change of position from consultants who had previously warned against widespread air conditioning use on environmental grounds.

How hot will the UK get?

Temperatures of 28 degrees are expected to hit parts of England on Friday, but the CCC’s forecasts paint a much more worrying picture for the coming decades; Readings of 40 degrees Celsius are expected to be a routine feature of British summers within 35 years.

Of all the climate threats facing the country, the report singled out increasing heatwaves as the most dangerous to human health; He said the threat was already to kill people and force pregnant mothers to suffocate in overheated wards.

His suggestions include legal limits on workplace temperatures, requiring hospitals and nursing homes to have cooling systems within a decade, and applying the same standard to schools by mid-century.

The committee also called on ministers to examine whether the school calendar needs to be redesigned, citing research that suggests higher temperatures are linked to lower exam performance among pupils.

Will air conditioning become standard in British homes?

Sky News reported that sustainable cooling methods, shading, shutters and tree cover should continue to play a role, but the CCC accepted that these would not be too costly or practical to install in many existing buildings. With extreme heat now looming over Britain’s future, the committee said air conditioning was becoming a necessity rather than a luxury.

“In fact, air conditioning will be necessary, particularly in places where there are vulnerable people, such as hospitals and care homes,” Baroness Brown said. “We think it will be inevitable.”

The CCC has adjusted its emissions budgets to reflect the expected increase in air conditioning use and said the low-carbon heat pumps that will eventually replace many gas boilers also have the capacity to cool homes.

Chris Michael, co-founder of portable air conditioner maker Meaco, said demand is already starting to increase as summers “get hotter and more consistent.” He said Britain’s buildings were “not designed” for the temperatures ahead, adding: “That’s one of the reasons we’re struggling.”

What are the environmental concerns regarding air conditioning?

Not everyone welcomed this change. Campaigners at the Environmental Investigation Agency have warned that widespread air conditioning will further deepen the “urban heat island” effect already scorching Britain’s cities and called for a ban on HFC chemicals used in many systems. Government advisers have previously opposed the adoption of mass air conditioning on similar grounds, arguing that the use of energy and chemicals was contributing to the warming it was designed to combat.

What else does the Committee on Climate Change report warn about?

The CCC’s report signaled broad alarm about the future, warning that “the British way of life is under threat” due to extreme weather. The numbers in the report are stark: nine out of ten homes are at risk of overheating, rivers are again flowing almost half as high at peak flow, and a daily water deficit could reach five billion liters by the middle of this century.

For those living in the most flood-prone areas, the report raises the possibility of being asked to leave the area permanently in what the CCC calls “managed displacements”; This means accepting that it will no longer be possible to stop the water in some places. Land along the Yorkshire, Norfolk and Suffolk coasts is being lost at the rate of up to 4 million people every year.

Adopting these changes would cost billions of dollars, but the CCC argued that the harm caused by the bill’s inaction would be much smaller. The Green Alliance think tank called on “all political parties” to take note of the report’s findings, warning: “If they don’t, voters will notice as water, temperatures and bills increase.”