UK climate advisers urge setting maximum working temperature

LONDON: Climate change experts urged the UK to set maximum temperature rules for workplaces and adapt hospitals and schools to a warming planet in a report published Wednesday.

The report by the Climate Change Committee (CCC), which advises the government on adapting to global warming, said Britain should set "measurable" targets to reduce the effects of climate change.

Experts identified the key climate change threats facing the UK as heat, flooding and drought, with 92 percent of homes "likely to overheat" by 2050 and acute water supply shortfalls without urgent government action.

"The UK was built for a climate that no longer exists today and will be increasingly distant in years to come," the CCC report notes, following concerns in recent heatwaves that the UK's infrastructure is not prepared for higher temperatures.

The country, which recorded its hottest year on record in 2025, has seen extreme weather events intensify in recent years, with unprecedented heat waves, floods that have caused significant damage, and long spells of drought.

Four of the UK's last five years now appear in the top five warmest years since 1884, and all of the top 10 hottest years will now have taken place in the last two decades.

- 'Increased ambition' -

In its fourth report advising the government, the CCC noted that efforts to limit global warming to below 2C should not prevent the UK from "preparing" for the consequences of global warming.

Countries agreed in the 2015 Paris Agreement to try to limit global warming to "well below" 2C, and aim for a 1.5C cap, which scientists warn is increasingly unattainable as human-driven climate change accelerates.

The CCC report urges setting "maximum working temperature regulations" to protect workers, installing cooling infrastructure like air conditioners and heat pumps, building flood defences and investing in reservoirs, among other recommendations.

It did not recommend what the maximum temperature should be set at.

Britain does not have any rules for maximum temperatures yet, and the CCC pointed to examples of countries like Spain, where the maximum legal indoor working temperature is 27C.

It advises the government to have "increased ambition" and estimates that investment of around £11 billion ($14.7 billion) a year from the public and private sector is needed.

The country has set a target to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 81 percent by 2035 compared to 1990 levels and is aiming to be carbon neutral by the middle of the century.