LSE extreme heat conference scrapped after UK issues red extreme-heat warning

An LSE Grantham Research Institute event on improving global governance around extreme heat has been cancelled because the UK Met Office issued a red extreme-heat warning — the exact hazard the conference was convened to address. The session was part of London Climate Action Week and was being run alongside the Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance.

The agenda would have opened with the first-ever Adeline Stuart-Watt Award, recognizing postgraduate research on climate adaptation and resilience, presented by Professor Lord Nicholas Stern. A second segment, chaired by Swenja Surminski, was set to share new cross-country analysis of heat governance gaps drawing on partners including Mercy Corps, Practical Action, the IFRC, and the UN, capped by a fireside discussion on advancing heat policy worldwide.

The cancellation underscores the practical point the program intended to make: extreme heat is already disruptive enough to shut down in-person operations in temperate countries like the UK, illustrating why governance, early-warning systems, and resilience planning are becoming urgent rather than theoretical.