‘My fear is that – without urgent action – the worst is still to come’: Sadiq Khan has said climate fears must be addressed. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA
London mayor points to ‘terrifying scenes’ this summer amid speculation Burnham may back Jackdaw and Rosebank projects
Sadiq Khan has called on the government to commit to revamped climate action and to reduce the UK’s reliance on oil and gas, as the UK endures a summer of drought, wildfires and heatwaves.
Writing in the Guardian, the mayor of London said that Andy Burnham’s administration must reaffirm its commitment to net zero and make clear it will continue to reduce the UK’s reliance on oil and gas “to get Britain back on track.”
There is growing concern among Labour MPs and climate experts that the new prime minister may support renewed drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea; since arriving in No 10, Burnham has remained largely tight-lipped on climate and environmental concerns despite speaking out about them during his time as mayor of Greater Manchester.
Last month, Burnham said he would be “pragmatic” about oil and gas and that decisions on new drilling would be made “in due course”. “The question isn’t whether Britain will still be using oil and gas, the question is where does it come from,” he said.
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Shrivelled sunflowers near the village of Kovilj, Serbia. Photograph: Andrej Isaković/AFP/Getty Image.
Slovakia reaches new high of 42C as authorities in Poland forced to shut down Kozienice and Połaniec power plants
Temperature records have been broken in several countries across central and eastern Europe as the extreme weather that has caused wildfires and droughts across the continent continues.
Countries including Slovakia, Austria and Hungary registered record temperatures. On Thursday, the Slovakian hydrometeorological agency said a new high of 42C (108F) had been reached in Dolné Plachtince.
Authorities in Poland were forced to shut down the Kozienice and Połaniec coal-fired power plants after critically low water levels in the Vistula River limited cooling water supplies. The disruption removed about 1.3GW of capacity from Poland’s power system.
In Germany, climate activists demanding an end to the use of fossil fuels demonstrated outside the chancellery against the lack of government action to keep people safe from extreme heat. An estimated 11,900 people across the country have died from heat this summer, according to new estimates from the Robert Koch Institute.
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At a press conference today, Zack Polanski delivered a ‘reality check’ to the Prime Minister as he sounded the alarm on the emergency of extreme heat and outlined three immediate actions he would take to tackle the crisis.
After highlighting the multiple threats we face – to our safety, our food and water supply, and our way of life – Zack called for action to keep people cool and safe, taxes on oil and gas giants to fund our fire services, and public ownership of water to end the failed experiment of privatisation.
Zack was joined on stage by an ex-soldier and engineer, a doctor, and a firefighter, who described the consequences of extreme weather they had seen in their work – as well as broadcaster and environmental campaigner Chris Packham who warned of the present and future risks of the climate crisis.
“Trees reduced to charcoal”
Zack started his press conference with a vivid description of the consequences of the extreme heat that has hit the UK this year.
The day before he had witnessed the aftermath of the devastation caused by a wildfire in Oxfordshire.
“Trees reduced to charcoal. Cars turned to burnt out wrecks. The smell of smoke still lingering in the air, on the site of what was once a thriving local business – now reduced to ash.
“Wildfires. Literal scorched earth. And that looming sense that this is only the beginning.
“These days feel exceptional, but what we’re living through right now are likely some of the least extreme summer temperatures we’ll experience in our lifetimes.”
This is what climate failure looks like. Nature, homes and livelihoods are being destroyed. The Government must act now.
The week before, while a wildfire the size of two hundred football pitches was raging across Suffolk, Zack had called on the Prime Minister to urgently call a COBRA meeting to address the crisis.
Six days later, and with another heat alert having just ended, where is the Government response? There has been no COBRA meeting, no emergency briefing, no new plan.
And so Zack stepped up to challenge the Prime Minister to act.
“We are facing the biggest threat to this country since the Second World War”
His challenge to the PM started with a stark reality check: “We are facing the biggest threat to this country since the Second World War.”
“Extreme weather is now the new normal – and without action, the impact on the people of this country will be unimaginably grave.”
And Zack broke down exactly what that impact will be.
First, the threat to our safety.
The dangers of extreme heat to our health are very real – especially for older people and those with pre-existing conditions – forcing people to stay indoors for days on end, to try to wait out the heat.
Zack Polanski delivers ‘reality check’ to Burnham over ‘biggest crisis since WWII’ after summer of extreme heat
As Zack explained, “Almost three thousand people have died from the effects of extreme heat this summer.”
Those “whose bodies were under such intense strain in trying to stay cool that their hearts or kidneys could no longer cope.”
And then there are the fires – forcing hundreds to evacuate their homes, “while many thousands more wait anxiously with flames on the horizon and smoke in their lungs.”
And Zack pointed to Europe as a warning of how bad things can get.
“Hundreds of thousands evacuated. Half a million acres burnt.
“The sheer scale of the devastation is hard to comprehend. But we need to look it in the face – because this is only a taster of what’s to come if we don’t act now.”
Decimated crops, leaking pipes, and no new reservoirs since 1992
After the danger to our physical safety, the second threat Zack identified concerned the basis of any society: our food and water supply.
Half of England is currently experiencing serious drought, and eight of our water reservoirs are at risk of running dry.
“The threat is so severe”, Zack said, “that the UK’s national risk register warns that if we had three years of exceptionally dry weather like this, we could face water rationing.”
And what of the private water companies?
The private water companies that haven’t built a single new reservoir since 1992.
Well, they are losing nearly three billion litres of water a day from leaky pipes – or as Zack put it “five times more than a nationwide hosepipe ban would save”.
Our farmers and growers, meanwhile, are on the frontlines of climate breakdown – facing in turn the extreme rainfall and flooding of recent winters, and the extreme heat and drought of our summers.
Zack noted that despite farmers working through the nights to avoid the heat, food production has been hit by this chaotic combo of flooding and drought, and food prices are set to rise as a result.
“A threat to our way of life”
The third threat Zack named was far-reaching: the threat to our way of life.
“Parents unable to take their children to the playground because the slides are so hot it could burn their skin off. Temperatures so high they keep us inside for days for the sake of our health. Cities feeling like ghost towns. Parks turned into deserts.”
As climate change progresses – bringing more frequent, more damaging extreme weather – the way each of us lives our life will be more severely impacted.
Zack Polanski holds a press conference to deliver an urgent message to Prime Minister Andy Burnham. (Photo: Aldo Ciarrocchi)
And we don’t have to look far to see what may face us in the years ahead.
Zack pointed to the “apocalyptic” scenes of “Wildfires. Droughts. Deadly floods.” coming out of Europe, noting that the continent “is heating at twice the rate of the rest of the world.”
It is there for all of us to see.
And yet the response from the Government, and most of the media, has been to look the other way.
In Zack’s words: “It’s an astonishing dereliction of duty from those whose first responsibility is to keep us safe.”
Zack’s demands for action: cool spaces, water in public hands, and taxing oil and gas giants to fund fire services
The need for action is urgent.
And Zack set out immediate steps the Prime Minister could take “to protect people right now and keep us safe from what we know is coming down the track.”
“We need to keep people safe from extreme temperatures. That means a free, accessible cool space in every local area. And financial support for households to heatproof their home.”
Secondly, Zack called for a robust wildfire prevention strategy – and a fire service with the resources it needs to tackle blazes when they come.
“This should be funded,” Zack said, “by taxing the fossil fuel giants who are profiting from fuelling these infernos.”
And thirdly Zack called for public ownership of our water.
“To secure our water supply, prevent droughts and protect our food system we need to bring water back into public hands.”
“Every penny households pay for their water needs to go back into strengthening our infrastructure, building new reservoirs, and protecting us from the droughts of the future.”
Extreme weather is now the new normal.The Prime Minister must act like this is the emergency it is.
Zack’s message to the PM: “There can be no new drilling for oil and gas”
Before handing the microphone over to the assembled experts, Zack finished with a powerful message direct to the Prime Minister.
“If we are to secure a liveable future for our children and grandchildren, there can be no new drilling for oil and gas. On this, the science is crystal clear.
“As politicians, we have a moral responsibility to do what’s right for the people we serve, even when it’s not politically convenient.
“And I know that whatever our differences, we both care deeply about the people of this country – and the future of our world.
“So when the time comes, I hope you will have the courage to be truthful, be brave – and hold firm to your party’s commitment to no new oil and gas drilling in the north sea – including both Rosebank and Jackdaw.
“Some will say we can’t afford to make these changes. These last few weeks are showing we can’t afford not to.”
“A dereliction of duty”: four expert voices on extreme heat
Zack was followed by four speakers with unique expertise on the extreme heat emergency.
First up was Carl Benfield, a former soldier and engineer, who since leaving the military has turned his engineering expertise to the challenges posed by climate breakdown.
His view? “Climate change is the single greatest threat to human security that we face.”
And his conclusion on successive governments’ failure to prioritise this threat was damning: “A government’s first duty is to keep its citizens safe. Ignoring extreme heat and raging fires isn’t just complacency, it’s a dereliction of duty.”
He was clear about what’s required: “We need an immediate COBRA-level response. We need climate change reinstated at the top of our defence and security agenda. And we need the bold leadership of Zack Polanski for our nation.”
"Ignoring extreme heat and raging fires isn't just complacency. It's a dereliction of duty."Experts warn the climate crisis is already costing lives and urgent action from the Government is needed.
Next to speak was London firefighter James Rodgers.
His powerful testimony of a worker on the frontlines of extreme heat highlighted the immediacy of the crisis, and how rapidly the conditions in which firefighters work are changing due to extreme heat.
“When people talk about climate change, they often talk about the year 2050. I’m a firefighter and I want to talk about now.”
“Because for firefighters, climate change isn’t a prediction. It’s a shift we are already working.
“Climate change is the fire call to multiple back gardens alight, children’s clothing burning on the washing line.
“Climate change is the acrid smell as you affect entry into a flat because someone has succumbed to heat stroke and hasn’t been checked on in weeks. Climate change is the sound of people in floods of tears when they are stuck in a lift 20 floors up in 30 degree heat.
“Climate change is the taste of dust in your dry mouth, watching a fire sweep uncontrollably across a park you used to play football in as a child in your summer holidays. Climate change is this becoming a day to day reality. ”
Dr Veena Aggarwal speaks at the press conference on the emergency of extreme heat. (Photo: Aldo Ciarrocchi)
Next was Dr Veena Aggarwal, a GP in Bristol and the Climate and Sustainability Co-Lead and Clinical Adviser at the Royal College of GPs.
She emphasised the growing danger to health, and – as with the fire services – the extreme pressure placed on health services by the heat:
“As a GP, I’ve been seeing firsthand the health impact of the recent heat waves.
“Ambulances are so stretched we couldn’t get an ambulance for a patient with sepsis or another one with very low oxygen levels, because the ambulance service was so completely overwhelmed.
“The London Ambulance Service saw its busiest ever day during the heatwave in June, on 26th June. That’s even busier than the days at the height of the Covid pandemic emergency.
“We’re seeing people having more asthma attacks; having flares up of their chronic lung disease so extreme they need to be in hospital; more people having heart attacks, strokes; or having falls and collapsing due to the heat, especially those who are frail and more vulnerable.”
Dr Aggarwal also highlighted the impact of the heat on staff and patients in NHS buildings, the human cost of the heat waves, and the need for immediate action.
“An extra almost 3000 deaths occurred within just one week in June during the heatwaves. That’s almost double what was recorded in that season in 2025. In Europe those deaths are 14,000 in that same period.
“We need to act now. The climate crisis is a health crisis.”
Chris Packham speaks at the press conference on the emergency of extreme heat. (Photo: Aldo Ciarrocchi)
The final speaker was broadcaster and nature campaigner Chris Packham.
Chris was excoriating in his appraisal of the Government and media’s response to the climate crisis.
Citing the same death figures as Dr Aggarwal, he said “If these deaths had been the result of terrorism or a pandemic, the Government would have cancelled its summer holiday.
“There would have been COBRA meetings, and there would have been public information campaigns the likes of which we saw during Covid, designed to protect us in this time of crisis.”
“And yet what do we get?
“We get rumours of possibly more drilling for oil and gas, and we get articles in the Telegraph suggesting we ought to adapt to a Mediterranean climate…
“If that isn’t reckless and irresponsible, I don’t know what is.”
Green party leader Zack Polanski (Green Party of England and Wales). Image: Bristol Green Party Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
Polanski calls for financial support for homes to keep cool, and free cool spaces in every community
Says extreme weather poses threats to safety, food and water supply, and our way of life
Calls for fossil fuel giants to pay cost of adapting to extreme weather and fire risk
Green Party leader Zack Polanski has delivered a ‘reality check’ to the Prime Minister as he ‘sounded the alarm’ about the impacts of extreme heat and wildfires in the UK.
Speaking at the end of yet another heat health alert, Polanski warned that ‘what we’re living through right now are likely some of the least extreme summer temperatures we’ll experience in our lifetimes’ and accused new Prime Minister Andy Burnham of failing to act.
The Green leader set out a series of measures he called on Burnham to take to keep people safe from extreme heat, including financial support to keep homes cool and cool spaces in every area, after an estimated 3000 people died as a result of dangerous temperatures in recent months.
Warning that the crisis risked food and water shortages, Polanski called on the government to bring water into full public ownership – saying that water companies had failed to secure our water supply with leaky pipes and a failure to build new reservoirs.
He also cited farmers warning of the risk of empty shelves, after flooding followed by drought led to the UK facing its worst harvest on record.
Polanski was joined at a press conference by an ex-soldier, a GP, and a firefighter, who described the consequences of extreme weather they had seen in their work – and broadcaster Chris Packham who sounded the alarm about the future risks of the climate crisis.
Polanski said:
“The scenes we have seen play out on our television screens are frankly apocalyptic.
“And yet the response from our government is to pretend none of this is happening. It’s an astonishing dereliction of duty from those whose first responsibility is to keep us safe.
“And from the media – with some brilliant and notable exceptions – we’ve seen more clamouring for North Sea drilling in the last few weeks than raising the alarm on climate breakdown.
“While our country has come together – to offer shelter to those who had to leave their homes due to wildfires, to check in with elderly neighbours, to care for those who are sick because of the heat – the government has been far, far too quiet.”
He went on:
“In the immediate term, we need to keep people safe from extreme temperatures. That means a free, accessible cool space in every local area. And financial support for households to heatproof their home.
“Second, we need a robust wildfire prevention strategy. A fire service with the resources it needs to tackle blazes when they come. That must include firefighting helicopters where needed, and not again seeing the shocking sight of requiring a charity to step in to contract a private firm to help fight the fires.
“And this should be funded by taxing the fossil fuel giants who are profiting from fuelling these infernos.
“Finally, to secure our water supply, prevent droughts and protect our food system we need to bring water back into public hands. Right now, money is flowing out of our hands into the pockets of shareholders – just like water is flowing out of these companies’ leaky pipes in the middle of a drought.”
Carl Benfield, former soldier and engineer, said:
“As a soldier and an engineer, I was used to conducting threat assessments and defensive plans. It is clear to me that climate change is the single greatest threat to human security we face.
“Removing climate resilience from our national defence priorities was an act of complete strategic blindness.
“You cannot defend a nation if you refuse to acknowledge the very force that makes its infrastructure obsolete, burns its countryside, and threatens its food and water supply.”
Pedro Sánchez: ‘It’s not enough to address the consequences of the climate emergency … we have to reduce its causes.’ Photograph: Mariscal/EPA
PM has long history of speaking out on realities of global heating but political opponents remain unnmoved
Just over four years ago, Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, visited a small town in the south-western region of Extremadura that had been affected by one of the wildfires devouring tens of thousands of hectares of land across the country.
“I want to make something very clear,” the prime minister told reporters in Extremadura that day in 2022. “Climate change kills: it kills people, as we’ve seen; it also kills our ecosystem, our biodiversity, and it also destroys the things we as a society hold dear – our houses, our businesses, our livestock.”
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