London extreme heat conference cancelled by red heat warning

A conference on heat, cancelled by heat

The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics has cancelled its 24 June event, “Extreme Heat: Improving governance and strengthening action around the world”, because of the red extreme heat warning issued by the UK Met Office. The session had been scheduled from 9:30 to 12:00 in the LSE Shaw Library on Houghton Street in London, as part of London Climate Action Week.

The institute said it regretted the cancellation. A red warning is the Met Office's most severe level of heat alert.

What the programme would have covered

The event was to open with the announcement of the inaugural Adeline Stuart-Watt Award, which recognises policy-relevant research on climate adaptation and resilience by postgraduate students and is supported by the Z Zurich Foundation. An overview of the award process was to be given by Candice Howarth, with the winner announced by Professor Lord Nicholas Stern, chair of the Grantham Research Institute.

The second half, chaired by Swenja Surminski, managing director for climate and sustainability at Marsh, was to examine the state of extreme heat governance worldwide. It was organised with the Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance and was to bring together researchers from the institute with partners including Mercy Corps, Practical Action and the IFRC, sharing new analysis of governance progress and challenges in the countries where the alliance works, followed by a fireside chat.

Why the topic matters

The cancellation itself illustrates the subject of the meeting. Heat governance — the rules, plans and institutions that decide how cities and countries prepare for extreme temperatures — has become a live policy question as heatwaves grow more frequent and intense. Among the listed contributors were Marc Gordon, global lead for extreme heat risk reduction at the UN Centre of Excellence for Climate and Disaster Resilience, Ninni Ikkala Nyman of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Olivia Shears of the UK Climate Change Committee, and Anna Beswick and Martina Podesta of the Grantham Research Institute.