Heat, Drought & Wildfires

New polling by YouGov for Friends of the Earth reveals a high level of public support for the introduction of national maximum workplace temperature limits. 79% of people backed this measure amidst a summer of heat extremes in the UK, while just 10% were opposed. 11% said they don’t know.

The poll – carried out at the end of July following successive UK heatwaves – also found that:

• 87% of people think the UK is not adequately prepared for extreme weather events such as heat and drought. This includes 81% of Reform and 84% of Conservative supporters. This suggests a rising sense of unpreparedness, since Climate Barometer asked this question in October 2024.
• A majority (52%) say they’d prefer the government to tackle climate adaptation and efforts to cut carbon emissions simultaneously, compared to prioritising one or the other (reaffirming Climate Barometer findings).
• Nearly half of respondents (49%) say they have become ‘more concerned’ for the welfare of friends and family. Just 1% said they feel ‘less concerned’ and 45% who say they feel ‘no difference’.

In new polling by Ipsos, over half of British adults (56%) report that this year’s extreme heat has disrupted their ability to carry out normal daily activities like working, exercising, or sleeping.

And although people in the UK are trying to adapt their homes to cope with the heat – many have been finding costs to be a major barrier. Ipsos report that the top reason for not planning to make home cooling changes is “lack of affordability” (39%).

3 in 4 (74%) said they were concerned about climate change today following heatwave summer, and concerns about future summers were also clear: 9 in 10 (87%) think it’s likely that Britain will continue to experience similar severe heatwaves into the future.

A new research output by Climate Outreach shows that support for adaptation action significantly increases when people are shown tangible solutions, such as heat-proofing our homes and restoring natural flood defences.

The piece – based on a survey of 7,000 people across Britain (carried out in 2025) and in-depth focus groups across the UK – found that:

• Three-quarters of people (75%) believe the government needs to take climate change “seriously” – this means a focus preparing for the worst impacts of climate change, for instance, by making our homes more suited for the heat, and building better flood defences.
• Most people give equal support for actions that count as adaptation and mitigation. A majority recognises that both adapting to intensifying climate impacts and lowering our future carbon emissions are of equal importance.
• The terms ‘climate adaptation’ and ‘climate resilience’ aren’t widely understood. Only half of people know what ‘climate adaptation’ means, whilst less than half know what ‘climate resilience’ is.
• The way climate adaptation is framed makes a huge difference to how much people support it. The more we explain what adaptation actions are and why we are doing them, the more people support the action.

The findings echo Climate Barometer tracker data which shows that adaptation and mitigation are supported equally, as well as past research by Climate Outreach/Cardiff University showing that the public see these broad responses as ‘two sides of the same coin’.

Following multiple heatwaves, more than 50% of Britons say they are more fearful for what’s to come in the future, with more than 48% feeling more anxious about climate change. That’s according to polling by Survation for Climate Outreach and Round Our Way.

These views were broadly shared across political divides – 58% of people intending to vote Labour say that the heatwaves have made them feel more anxious about climate change as did 48% of Conservative Voters. Although this fell to around a third for Reform voters (33%).

The research also finds that 51% of people feel that it’s more important for the Government and businesses to tackle climate change, in light of the heatwaves. 61% of Labour’s 2024 voters agreed here, although again this fell to around a third (35%) amongst those who intend to vote for Reform.

A survey of 1,000 UK parents during June’s heatwave found that almost two-thirds said summers in the UK were “starting to feel genuinely unsafe for children”.

The poll, carried out by Focaldata on behalf of Round Our Way, found that more than half (53%) of parents said one or more of their children had missed had a school/college day cancelled, been sent home early, or been told to stay at home because of the hot weather.

40% of parents said children came home from school overheated and exhausted, while many (46%) said their children were unable to play outside because it was too hot.