Heat Wave in June Cost the UK Economy $1.5 Billion

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(Bloomberg) — The heat wave that scorched western and central Europe in June cost the UK economy £1.15 billion ($1.5 billion) in lost hours of work, according to new research. 

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Heat impacted working hours, workplaces, commuting and ability to sleep, according to a survey of 1,950 adults across the UK conducted by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change. 

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“Our findings point to a country that remains insufficiently adapted to the changing climate,” said the Grantham Institute’s director Elizabeth Robinson in a statement. “The government cannot continue to ignore extreme heat.” 

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The June heat wave was the most severe ever recorded in Europe and resulted in about 2,700 excess deaths in Wales and England alone, according to researchers. Climate change pushed temperatures several degrees higher than they otherwise would have been, exposing shortcomings in UK infrastructure such as public transport, office buildings and other workplaces, as well as in planning rules that prevent some homeowners from easily installing air conditioning and other cooling measures. 

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Heat meant people worked about 30 minutes less on average during the week beginning Monday, June 22, the survey found. National temperature records for June were broken on three consecutive days that week. Employees in jobs that are more physically demanding or involve more exposure to heat, including construction and agriculture workers,  reduced their hours more dramatically, with 3.6% of the people surveyed not working at all that week because of the high temperatures. 

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Negative effects on wellbeing were widespread, with 87% of workers surveyed reporting at least one health-related impact during that weak, ranging from disrupted sleep and feeling more tired at work to dizziness, fainting and a faster heartbeat. In total, 5% of respondents sought medical attention and about 3% of respondents reported an accident or injury at work, about two-thirds of whom felt the weather had played a part. 

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Record-breaking summer heat will have longer-term consequences for the economy because it is supercharging drought across the whole of Europe, according to a separate study by researchers at World Weather Attribution, released on Thursday. 

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While the lack of rain isn’t clearly driven by climate change, extreme temperatures are accelerating the evaporation of moisture from the ground, making drought conditions 80 times more likely, according to researchers from 12 European countries. Crop failures, low water levels in rivers and key shipping routes and impacts on energy production including nuclear could drive inflation higher.  

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“Europe’s climate is shifting fast,” said Sarah Kew, a climate scientist at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, in a statement. “While rain patterns remain mixed, our findings show that extreme heat is taking over as the primary driver of drought on our continent.”

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