Heat Risk and Resilience Assessment in the UK, 2022

Mehryar, Sara (2025). Heat Risk and Resilience Assessment in the UK, 2022. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-857640

The Place-Based Climate Action Network (P-CAN) seeks to strengthen the links between national and international climate policy and local delivery through place-based climate action. The Network is innovative in its focus on local decision making. Clear policy signals by the government are essential, but the key to continued climate action increasingly lies at the local level, with the participation of local actors, businesses and citizens. Important decisions about low-carbon business opportunities, renewable energy investment, urban transport, energy management, buildings efficiency and the management of climate risks are decentralised and taken across the UK.

P-CAN is about engagement, impact, and the co-creation and sharing of knowledge. The Network has the following components:

1. Place-based climate change commissions: We will develop three city-level climate commissions, in Belfast, Edinburgh and Leeds. The concept is currently being piloted in Leeds as an innovative structure for sustained two-way, multi-level engagement between national and local policy and practice. We will work on the replication of these commissions in other local context to further broaden our reach.

2. Thematic platforms: There will be two theme-based platforms, on business engagement and green finance. These virtual networks will focus on two stakeholder groups that are particularly important for place-based climate action. They will be co-created with representatives from the business and sustainable finance community.

3. The P-CAN Flexible Fund: We will open the Network to the wider community of climate change researchers and research users by commissioning 20-30 small grants. The grants will be awarded competitively, with a focus on engagement activities, user-oriented analysis, innovative approaches and support for early-career researchers.

4. Communication and user-oriented research synthesis: An active outreach strategy will connect the place-based activities and inform wider climate action by co-producing, synthesising and communicating decision-relevant analysis. This programme of user-oriented outreach will leverage the work of P-CAN's host institutions and other ESRC investments.

P-CAN is led by an experienced team of senior academics from a diversity of backgrounds. They all have strong track records of engaging with decision processes at the local, national and/or international level. Most of them have combined academic achievements with careers in business, finance, or international development. The Network PI is a former member of the Committee on Climate Change.

The core team is supported by a full-time Network Manager, a Communications Officer and a group of Network Analysts who will provide analytical, administrative and logistics support for the five platforms (three local commissions and two thematic platforms). P-CAN will, to the maximum extent possible, leverage the existing administrative, research and engagement capabilities of its host institutions, including the ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy, the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation, and the Centre for Sustainability and Environmental Governance in Belfast.

P-CAN will be successful if it can inform the climate change decisions of stakeholders across the five platforms. We will focus on activities that support key UK policy objectives and their local implementation, such as the city strategies of Belfast, Edinburgh and Leeds, the UK Industrial Strategy, the Clean Growth Strategy, the statutory carbon budgets, the 25-year Environment Plan, the next Climate Change Risk Assessment, the recommendations of the UK Green Finance Task Force and the Task Force for Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) as well as the climate strategies of Scotland and Northern Ireland. P-CAN will respond flexibly to evolving demands. This will ensure that the platforms we create become self-sustaining and can be replicated elsewhere.

Data description (abstract)

Heatwaves are becoming more frequent and intense, yet many countries remain inadequately prepared to manage their impacts. Existing heat risk plans and responses often fail to account for the complex interdependencies among the various causes and impact pathways of heat waves.

Effective planning requires a system-level understanding of these interdependencies to identify strategic entry points for action. This research employs a participatory system mapping approach to explore the interconnections among causes, impacts, and response actions during the UK heatwave events of summer 2022. Cognitive maps were developed shortly after the events, incorporating input from 38 stakeholders across sectors involved in the heatwave response. These maps informed a forensic disaster analysis designed to provide a holistic understanding of the heatwave’s causes, impacts, and adaptation measures.

By analysing the interdependencies among these factors, we identified cascading effects and amplifiers that significantly intensified heat risk in the UK. Notably, we find that the primary heatwave impacts were often indirect, emerging or worsening due to cascading effects such as wildfires, drought, transportation disruptions, and the overburdening of first responders. In many cases, adaptation measures were reactive, addressing isolated, short-term impacts, while proactive, system-level approaches tackling interconnected impacts and root causes—such as vulnerable buildings, at-risk populations, and behavioural barriers—were largely absent. Additionally, we found notable variations in heat risk perceptions among groups. While individual sectors displayed a limited understanding of the broader heat risk system, a system-level perspective emerged through the aggregation of cognitive maps. The implications for adaptation research and policy are discussed.

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