Early engagement notice - Risks to health and the health service due to extreme heat

The Climate Change Committee (CCC) is an independent, statutory body established under the 2008 Climate Change Act. It is tasked with:

To do this, we conduct independent analysis into climate science, economics and policy, and engage with a wide range of organisations and individuals to share evidence and analysis. Our past reports are available here.

The UK Climate Change Act 2008 requires that every five years, the UK government must publish a Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA). The CCRA seeks to provide an authoritative and up-to-date assessment of the risks and opportunities facing the UK from climate change and the adaptation actions that need to be put in place across society to ensure that the UK is well-placed to manage these risks. The Fourth UK Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA4) Government Report is due to be published in January 2027. As with CCRA2 and CCRA3 it will be based on an Independent Assessment that the CCC has been commissioned by Defra to lead; this will be published in mid-2026.

As part of CCRA4, the CCC will be developing a new output to complement the Technical Report as produced in previous CCRAs. This output - to be known as the 'Well-adapted UK report' (WA report) - will focus on the potential for key aspects of the UK adaptation challenge to reduce the climate risks threatening the achievement of key UK policy and societal outcomes and hence set out a vision for aspects of a well-adapted UK. The WA report aims to provide a policy-relevant evidence base on effective systemic adaptation scenarios, their costs and benefits (and how these are distributed across society). It aims to use this information to establish a resilience standard against the risks modelled for key societal systems and establish the investment requirements to meet this standard.

The report will be tailored to best inform the development of effective actions in the next set of national adaptation programmes from governments across the UK (covering the late 2020s and early 2030s). It also seeks to provide a more spatial and quantitative representation of UK climate risks and adaptation, an improved understanding of the potential for cascading climate risks, and their interactions with other key policy priorities such as delivering Net Zero.

*** See attachment for more details ***