Heat Risk in London

The LCRP runs a Heat Risk in London group, which acts as a hub for knowledge exchange between organisations working on the various aspects of planning for heatwaves and responding to longer term overheating risk. Acting on the findings of our Overheating Thresholds, Health and Climate, and Retrofitting projects and also the work of partners on cutting edge research including the Grantham Institute of Climate Change at the LSE and other world leading research institutions, the group has the following objectives:

Addressing heat risk in the built environment:

• Identify policy gaps and support action to address these (e.g. via the London Plan, local authority plans, regulatory change on building standards etc) 
• Promote retrofit in buildings and neighbourhoods, including through existing programmes  
• Facilitate alignment of adaptation with other programmes and activities, including net zero.  

Support community resilience to heat

• Build on good practice in community climate risk and resilience engagement and use insight-informed engagement and communication on heat to inform local authorities, service providers, and the public. 
• Identify key audiences and co-produce evidence-informed advice and guidance. 
• Use heat risk as a case study for embedding equity principles within resilience planning processes 

Facilitate the translation of evidence into action

• Identify important evidence/research gaps and communicate these to research hubs to take forward. 
• Provide a forum for researchers to identify opportunities for co-production and collaboration at the early stages of research design. 
• Provide forum for researchers to present ideas and projects to receive feedback. 
• Provide opportunities for Partnership members to develop relationships with researchers to encourage future collaboration and access technical support.

Support the implementation of heat risk-related recommendations that emerge from the independent London Climate Resilience Review

• Review and consider findings of the Environmental Audit Commission  that are relevant to London. Identify important evidence/research gaps and communicate these to research hubs to take forward

Our members are now supporting the development of London’s first heat risk plan helping identify and select the priority sectors for action as part of the plan, and shaping the resulting actions.

If you are interested in getting involved in the Heat Risk in London group, please contact us.