Britain is being warned it could sleepwalk into a cooling crisis as another heatwave drives demand for air conditioning.
The Environmental Investigation Agency has published a new briefing, UK Cooling Policy in a Warming World, calling for ministers to adopt a national cooling action plan that protects people from extreme heat without locking the country into higher emissions.
The London-based campaign group claims the UK is warming faster than the global average, with more frequent and intense heatwaves already causing thousands of excess deaths and overheating homes, workplaces and public buildings.
It warns that without proper planning, the default response will be a rapid rise in air conditioning, pushing up electricity demand, greenhouse gas emissions and inequality.
The briefing says Labour needs to prioritise passive cooling, including better building design, shading, insulation, ventilation, urban greening and nature-based solutions that reduce indoor temperatures before mechanical cooling is needed.
EIA says the risk is a new form of summer “cooling poverty”, where wealthier households can afford air conditioning while poorer and more vulnerable people are left in dangerously hot homes.
It also warns that more air conditioning can make cities hotter by releasing waste heat into already overheated streets, worsening the Urban Heat Island effect.
The charity said recent heat has already triggered a surge in air conditioner sales, with retailers reporting record demand.
But it says most air conditioners still use hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, synthetic gases with high climate impacts that the UK is meant to be phasing down under F-gas rules.
The Climate Change Committee’s Seventh Carbon Budget requires HFCs and other F-gas emissions to fall by 73% by 2040 but EIA says current policy is not on track and Defra’s review of the F-gas Regulation has been delayed.
Clare Perry, EIA UK Climate Campaign Leader, said: “The UK is sleepwalking into a cooling crisis. Every new air conditioning unit sold today risks locking in decades of F-gas emissions while doing little to address the root cause of overheating.
“The Government must act now to ban HFCs and hydrofluoroolefins (HFOs) in cooling equipment, mandate natural refrigerants where active cooling is necessary and prioritise passive cooling.”
EIA says natural refrigerants such as CO₂, propane and ammonia are already available and scalable.
It points to the EU heat pump market, where propane models now account for 38%, as evidence that alternatives can move quickly when regulation gives a clear signal.
The Government has promised a “cooling outlook document” but EIA says that appears to fall short of a full national cooling action plan under the Global Cooling Pledge.
The group wants ministers to treat cooling as a public health, housing and climate issue, with more support for vulnerable people, community cool spaces, stronger rules on new buildings, retrofits for existing homes and training for workers in passive cooling and natural refrigerants.
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