London Climate Action Week Disrupted by Extreme Heatwave
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- London Climate Action Week, a major green campaigners' gathering, faces disruptions due to a severe heatwave across the UK and Europe.
- Several events have been cancelled or impacted by train service disruptions, highlighting the real-world effects of climate change.
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Events at London Climate Action Week — one of the world’s biggest gatherings of green campaigners — have been disrupted by the heatwaves sweeping across the U.K. and much of Europe.
Organizers said some of the approximately 1,000 events planned across the capital have been called off, amid “one of the hottest periods ever in the U.K.”
“We are already seeing events being cancelled as much of London’s building stock cannot function,” Nick Mabey, CEO of climate campaign think tank E3G, and the founder of London Climate Action Week, told POLITICO. “This is a dramatic demonstration of the reality of climate change and how it threatens our economy, way of life and cultural heritage.”
A panel event scheduled for Wednesday morning at the London School of Economics, focused on “improving governance” of “extreme heat”, was cancelled “due to the red extreme heat warning issued by the U.K. Met Office.” Another event, hosted by the Ramboll consultancy on Wednesday afternoon, has also been cancelled due to the extreme temperatures, organizers said.
The red warning — meaning a risk to life even for healthy people — is in place from 9 a.m. Wednesday to 9 p.m. Thursday covering London, much of southern and central England, and parts of Wales.
Event organizers have also had to contend with the heat disrupting train services into London, preventing delegates and speakers attending events. Britain’s biggest train operator, Greater Thameslink Railway, warned passengers only to travel if absolutely necessary on Wednesday and Thursday, with temperatures expected to rise to 36C.
A spokesperson for London Climate Action Week said it was hard to track the exact number of cancellations but they believed it was below 10, with most events going ahead as planned.
U.K. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, speaking at a U.K.-government co-hosted London Climate Action Week event on Tuesday, said the extreme weather in London this week “impels us to act” on climate change.
“My final point is this: We care about future generations,” Miliband said. “We know that we will be judged on the legacy we leave, and the weather in London this week ... believe me, when I was a child, it wasn't 35C in London in June.”
