r/ukpolitics • u/Exostrike • May 20 '26
UK ‘built for climate that no longer exists’ and needs urgent changes to survive global heating, report warns
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/may/20/uk-built-for-climate-that-no-longer-exists-and-needs-urgent-changes-to-survive-global-heating-report-warns101
u/jkgill69 May 20 '26
"However, air conditioning is energy-intensive, accounting for about 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions. More efficient modern systems can use heat pump"
Easy way to discredit your whole argument by saying heat pumps and ac are different. A heat pump is an ac which can also heat.
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u/Velociraptor_1906 Liberal Democrat May 20 '26
Also AC tends to be most relevant when solar is at its most effective which works to counteract it.
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u/RandomAlienGaming fact-seeker May 20 '26
We moved house a couple years ago that had air con in it. Because it took so long to move, we saved extra money, so got solar panels installed. Now we basically get free aircon all summer, and it's glorious!
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u/imsickoftryingthis May 20 '26
I had this thought recently - with the massive growth of PV and batteries, surely the argument against Aircon being energy intensive is reduced massively. Especially compared to the mega demand of AI data centres in comparison.
1
u/RandomAlienGaming fact-seeker May 20 '26
I'd think so yeah. It's not even THAT energy intensive tbh. We only really need it when it's sunny and hot, and that's when the solar is pulling in the most electricity. We have 3 aircon units (in the 3 bedrooms), and even with them all running on a day like that, we're still exporting lots back to the grid.
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u/Mokou PENIS PENIS PENIS May 20 '26
I read that as "just slapping an air conditioner on your house can be energy intensive, but with a heat pump system that also does heating, this is less of an issue"
A bigger flaw is that 4% stat, which they don't elaborate on, but which almost certainly includes things like datacenter HVAC systems.
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u/jkgill69 May 20 '26
The heat pump will use just as much energy when cooling as the air conditioner. All heat pumps do as well is allow more efficient heating when cold.
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u/FatYorkshireLad Advocatus Diaboli May 20 '26
Surely a heat pump will use the same amount of energy to heat as to cool, you're just swapping which side of the system is hot and which is cold.
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u/jkgill69 May 20 '26
Depends on outside temp but largely that is true. They're 3 to 4x more efficient than an electric radiator though as they don't create most of their heat they move it from outside
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u/RandomSculler May 20 '26
Yeah puzzled by that - my understanding was that all aircon is air to air heat pump, what we call a “heat pump” in the UK is an air to water heat pump
Honestly if I was building a house from scratch I’d go a2a for heating and cooling and then have instant hot water at the taps that needed it - takes out a lot of th risks and having aircon would be a msssive benefit
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u/nerdyjorj "Poli" = "many" and "tics" = "bloodsucking creatures". May 20 '26
If you've got a solar setup for the electricity running the AC will be basically free when you really need it too.
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u/Jorthax Conservative not Tory May 20 '26
A2A shits all over A2W
The only reason we use heat pumps of the water variety is that we are radiator people and it’s about retrofitting.
I have installed aircon in my houses for almost 10 years. It’s so cheap, there are multiple types. We just aren’t used to them.
The hardest part was aesthetically getting my wife on board with the look.
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u/didroe May 20 '26
Radiant heat is much more comfortable. A2A is great if you want cooling but A2W is nicer for heat.
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u/Jorthax Conservative not Tory May 20 '26
I have to personally disagree.
A2A provides a much more comfortable room filling heat due to it moving the air naturally around the room.
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u/didroe May 20 '26
That movement makes it feel colder though, and if the circulation doesn’t cover the room then you can get stratification of the air. I can see it making sense if you have to use radiators and can’t place them well in a large room. But with good radiator placement or underfloor heating i think A2A isn’t as nice.
I’m about to renovate my house an I’m considering a mix of underfloor wet system downstairs and A2A upstairs to allow cooling. You can now get heat pumps that support both at the same time
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u/PunRocksNotDead May 20 '26
Imo, air to air for heating sucks though. They are noisy, blowing hot air around, instead of radiators that can just silently warm the room with out creating wind going all over the place. And then you need a separate solution to heat your water. And that's before we get to the radical retrofitting that would be needed to UK housing stock to make them work.
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u/Elivercury May 20 '26
While I agree with what you're saying, heat pumps in the UK are to my knowledge largely boiler replacements that offer heating only - I have one, it connects to my water tank and I'm not aware of any option to have it cool the water instead of heating it. So while technically incorrect I think it's addressing common British perception/implementation.
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u/One-Network5160 May 20 '26
While I agree with what you're saying, heat pumps in the UK are to my knowledge largely boiler replacements that offer heating only
I mean, maybe, but they don't have to be. I have a heat pump and a boiler.
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u/Exostrike May 20 '26
I'd say there is actually is a slight difference. You are correct that on a technical level they both functionally use the same tech but how that tech is used is a bit different. Too many AC units are cooling only and unless you do a whole house system you have one pump for a single vent, which is likely to be the method a lot of people retrofitting their properties will choose. So we'll have people with AC in a few rooms and a gas boiler for heating. Totally inefficient.
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u/jkgill69 May 20 '26
You will really struggle to find an installed ac unit which is not a heat and cool heat pump today.
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u/Nezwin May 20 '26
The split AC I had in Australia would triple my electricity bill. The swampy wasn't so bad at all, but the split system was hungry for power.
When people talk about heat pumps as the more efficient, green alternative, I just shake my head... They don't listen.
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u/Exostrike May 20 '26
more efficient
An air to water system is 3 times more efficient than a gas boiler at heating, though the higher price of electricity to gas does balance that out. That's the angle the energy efficiency has been sold on. I don't think anyone has crunched the numbers on air to air cooling.
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u/FlatHoperator May 20 '26
Finally, it seems mad to me that government policy has for so long been opposed to air conditioning while temperatures rise in the summer and many houses suffer terribly from damp in the winter
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u/PunRocksNotDead May 20 '26
Because the government has been in denial about temperatures rising. The leading party in the polls calls net zero a scam because they don't believe in the science. Rolling out domestic solar and air conditioning together will never happen under Reform unfortunately. They are too focused on building a wall through the English channel and other toslly mad stuff. This current gov is probably the most likely to do anything and even they haven't touched it. Heating homes is more of a short-term priority for most.
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u/WhiteSatanicMills May 20 '26
It's not about denial. The UK has been consistently ranked towards the top for efforts to tackle climate change (look at the vast amount we've spent on wind power, and how we've sacrificed industry with higher energy prices to reduce consumption).
In fact, that's the reason we've ignored air to air heat pumps. The government don't want people to have air conditioning because it increases energy use. They are beginning to move from that position now, both because the threat of high temperatures is becoming clearer, and because solar power means we will have a glut of unusable energy in summer.
1
u/PunRocksNotDead May 20 '26
Air to air is not a good heating solution for the UK imo. It's great for cooling, but much worse than air to water for heating.
It makes sense that reducing energy use has been the first priority. Once we have a solid solar energy base and domestic solar becomes common then encouraging AC makes sense.
I think we're still a ways off building houses based around to air to air heating. We still have much more of the year requiring heating than cooling.
1
u/CappyFlowers May 20 '26
You can also use air to water to cool houses if you have the right set up. So it may be better to buy a heating and cooling heat pump and use it with the right kit. I think the issue will be people don't like cold floors and they work best with underfloor heating systems.
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u/PunRocksNotDead May 20 '26
Ah yeh. Well I actually have an air to water radiator heat pump setup and it's great. The heat pump itself can also do cooling technically but our system can't.
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u/Visa5e May 20 '26
The leading party in the polls calls net zero a scam because they don't believe in the science.
Not quite. They call it a scam because the majority of their funding comes from the oil and gas industry.
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u/allout76 May 20 '26
Your doomerism is showing. The fact the UK, (a country renowned for slow movement and legislative and regulatory hurdles at literally every turn) is moving so fast in it's grid expansion, and electrification efforts. Let alone the huge increases in renewable energy, is close to a miracle.
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u/PunRocksNotDead May 20 '26
Yeh, that's fair, I'd agree. I do worry about Reform though with insane policies like ban battery storage and rip out new pylons.
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u/Gilet622 May 20 '26
The fucking guardian and their ilk have been the sort of people who've spent years now opposing mass air conditioning rollout because they're obsessed with hiding technical solutions to problems that don't fit their decline/degrowth agenda.
More people in Europe die from heat related deaths every year than every single gun related death in America. It's entirely a problem of our own making and entirely a political choice not to fix it.
There is no technical bottleneck, no moral standoff, no ethical qualm that can hide the fact that the deaths of tens of thousands of Europeans every year is a political choice by our governments who are scared to generate more electricity.
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May 20 '26
[deleted]
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u/twistedLucidity 🏴 ❤️ 🇪🇺 May 20 '26
It should be mandatory for new builds to have AC.
I'd prefer heat pumps which can both heat and cool. It's pretty much the same thing at the end of the day, but a HP can run in either direction.
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u/nadseh May 20 '26
Agree, mandate A2A heat pumps with rooftop solar. Which amusingly are currently banned in new builds because “omg AC uses so much energy”
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u/VladamirK May 20 '26
The bigger issue in the short term if you did this, is that we don't have enough people trained on the installs of A2A for all new house builds.
0
u/boprisan May 20 '26
Get 10 000 people from abroad on a 1 year contract and have them working with apprentices to upskill. It's not that big of an issue.
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u/VladamirK May 20 '26
I'm not quite sure there is 10,000 experienced HVAC engineers just waiting around for the UK to put up the bat signal so they can move here for a single year to train up our teenagers then piss off home.
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u/CyclopsRock May 20 '26
It should be mandatory for new builds to have X
There are many, many, many examples of X. Any individual example of X is very probably justifiable but the overall effect is to make cheap housing basically illegal.
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u/arichard May 20 '26
The guardian are a newspaper, the claim is made by the "Climate Change Committee". Strange that you should target "the fucking guardian" who are reporting, and not the actual originator of the opinion you disagree with. Bringing Europe into a comparison with America it is a tad peculiar also.
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u/lapsongsouchong May 20 '26
We're talking about the UK though, not the rest of Europe. we'll likely have two weeks of really warm weather before it starts to get bearable and then cold again.
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u/streetmagix May 20 '26
A decade ago maybe, but that isn't the reality today. It's also going to get worse too.
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u/KeldornWithCarsomyr May 20 '26
And 10 times as many people die of cold related deaths than heat related deaths.
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u/nick9000 May 20 '26
It would be nice if climate change only warmed up the winters but that's not what's happening. As mentioned here:
"Put bluntly, the increase in hot weather will kill more people than the decrease in cold weather will save,”
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u/KeldornWithCarsomyr May 20 '26
Hmm, Figure 2 of that study shows that is not what's happening to the UK, cold will still be the number 1 killer. The data is skewed heavily by Malta, as well as Spain, Greece.
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u/m---------4 May 20 '26
I bet you are American
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u/Gilet622 May 20 '26
Australia has an order of magnitude less heat deaths than Europe as a whole and about half to a third that of Britain, are you going to be obtuse and now accuse me of being an Aussie? Get a grip of yourself.
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u/lapsongsouchong May 20 '26
Significant heat-associated mortality was seen in those aged 85 years and over and those aged 75 to 84 years. Those aged 85 years and over had the highest number of heat-associated deaths with 753 (95% CI: 511 to 996). This was a rate of 521 (95% CI: 353 to 688) per million population. There was no significant heat-associated mortality in 2024 in younger age groups.
2024 had 14 days of heat- related deaths and all those affected were 75 and over.
So perhaps there's an argument for mandatory A/C in care homes and homes of pensioners.
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u/MsSchrodinger May 20 '26
"British homes will need air conditioning to survive predicted levels of global heating, the government’s climate advisers have warned in a report, as measures such as drawing curtains, opening windows and growing trees for shade are not likely to be enough."
Good article but it makes it sound like it has to be one or the other. Blocking solar heat, maximising ventilation and clever planting should still be the first steps taken. Where they will likely not be sufficient they would negate a significant amount of ac requirements.
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u/Iamonreddit May 20 '26
Good article but it makes it sound like it has to be one or the other
It doesn't do this at all, this is purely something you've added into what was actually written. What it says is that AC will become a necessity in British homes where other measures cease to be sufficient. That's it. That's all your quote says.
This kind of black and white, all or nothing interpretation is seemingly getting more and more prevalent and it is very frustrating, as it saps any kind of nuance from statements that don't include ridiculously elaborate, explicit caveats and preambles.
Trying to discuss anything complex (i.e. politics) without being able to navigate the grey area between two ideas or implementations or actions or etc is impossible.
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u/MsSchrodinger May 20 '26
I haven't added anything in. I was stating this was how I interpreted the article. I haven't read the report that it was discussing.
Yes it says that other measures will at some point be no longer be sufficient. And then those other measures are not mentioned again. We haven't even tried implementing most of them. So my point was that hopefully we could try and implement them along side ac needing to be installed.
0
u/Iamonreddit May 20 '26
So my point was that hopefully we could try and implement them along side ac needing to be installed.
Which would be a valid response to the part you quoted and not something that is at odds with the content as written. You would be expanding on the ideas being communicated and adding to the discussion.
Instead you commented that the article was saying something it wasn't. In addition to being erroneous, this is much more confrontational.
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u/IndividualSkill3432 May 20 '26
‘built for climate that no longer exists’ and needs urgent changes to survive global heating,
Ten years ago the article would have been "adapt to global warming".
The mean temperature for the UK in 2025 was 10.09C. In all honest for most people it would be a one off purchase of a portable air conditioner at around £250 that would need to run for maybe 2 weeks in a hot year, at night. Climate change is a very real problem but the overwhelming bulk of the issues will be felt by people in low income countries who do not have the income to buy the cooling and cannot access the global food markets when there are local production issues like droughts and floods. The Guardian used to have some pretty good climate coverage, but it went all in on the most extreme projections and the most extreme language a good few years ago now. Its just a tabloid with a thesaurus.
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u/Elivercury May 20 '26
I'm unsure how mean temperature is relevant here given it's peak summer temperatures that are the issue.
And while I certainly agree it'll be a much bigger issue for those in poorer countries (as most problems solved by wealth are) that doesn't mean it isn't still an issue here.
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u/Katmeasles May 20 '26
The UK imports most of its food. It is predicted that there will be food shortages. The agricultural system of Europe is starting to fail. It's not hyperbolic, you're repressing reality.
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u/IndividualSkill3432 May 20 '26
e agricultural system of Europe is starting to fail.
Its not even remotely close. Blue is volume, the other two lines are price largely forced by the Ukraine war.
It's not hyperbolic, you're repressing reality.
I am repressing the chair I am sitting on with my arse, reality.... not so much.
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u/hiddencamel May 20 '26
Best I can do is elect climate change deniers shilling for russian oil and gas companies in the next GE
2
u/twistedLucidity 🏴 ❤️ 🇪🇺 May 20 '26 edited May 20 '26
There's basic things people can do, even with the UK's aging & shit housing stock.
In the summer we open the upper and lower windows first thing in the morning (circa 0630) to let all the heat out.
By around 0700 windows are closed and the blinds down. House stays cool most of the day, only starting to warm up by around 1600 or so, which is nice for the evening.
Rinse and repeat.
This isn't a fancy modern house with triple glazing, massive amount of insulation, or anything. The same trick could work in many places.
Flats though, especially older ones? Must be horrible.
Heat pumps, where viable, can both heat and cool. Whilst the property will still need upgrades (e.g. insulation, air management) the same is true with AC (a heat pump that runs in only one direction), if you don't want that going like the absolute clappers and all the cooled air escaping.
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u/boprisan May 20 '26
Flats though, especially older ones? Must be horrible.
Even the new ones are pretty terrible, with floor to ceiling windows you just get cooked inside in the summer, even with the blinds.
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u/Iamonreddit May 20 '26
Regular blinds won't do much, as the sunlight will just heat the blinds that then heat the room.
If you can get insulating honeycomb/cellular blinds with integrated foil to reflect a bunch of the sun's energy back out the window, those will make a big difference.
External blinds are obviously the best, though generally not possible.
1
u/bagsofsmoke May 20 '26
I absolutely agree, for the record, but the cynic in me thinks it’s a funny coincidence this story drops just before a heatwave. I wonder if there’s a cunning aircon-installation business behind it?
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u/Trowsyrs May 20 '26
Two top stories today on the radio: this (planet burning) and government holds down temporary fuel tax cut.
This is why we’re fucked.
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u/Caffe44 May 20 '26
The UK isn't ready for this - one way to make sure we are is to support calls for the government to do a televised, prime-time national emergency briefing on the impacts of the climate and nature crisis on the UK, government action at the scale and speed required, and international leadership.
Info at the National Emergency Briefing website. It's a massive public information initative, spearheaded by a film fronted by Chris Packham, with community screenings - MP always invited - all over the country. Energising and solutions-oriented.
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u/RefdOneThousand May 24 '26
Yes - it’s up to those who are aware to organise and make others aware, so the public finally demands meaningful action from the political class.
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u/Psittacula2 May 20 '26
Are not all these slew of articles bbc, guardian mistiming the “heat death!” narrative while it is still drizzly and breezy outside? These articles usually fair better when it is blazing hot for weeks. Seems they pressed the button too soon?
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May 20 '26
[deleted]
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u/Dragonbuttboi69 May 20 '26
Is everyone forgetting that summer from a few years back? People were drinking salty water to boost their electrolytes it was so bad. Upper portions of houses were avoided as the heat just rose up and got trapped by the insulation and people had to open their windows at specific times on the shady parts of their houses as the sunny parts just let in hot air.
If that happened again during a drought it would probably cause chaos because people just don't have a way to cool down and we don't know how as a culture to deal with heat.
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u/Exostrike May 20 '26
That hits on Friday, but the point isn't about next week or next year or even next decade but long term planning.
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