As record heat grips Wales, Climate Cymru has urged the Welsh Government for a comprehensive heat action plan, highlighting gaps in worker protections.

As temperatures reach levels that would once have seemed unthinkable, Climate Cymru is calling on the Welsh Government to implement a National Heat Action Plan.

Wales is today baking under a red heat warning from the Met Office, only the second such warning ever issued in the UK, the first having been in 2022.

While Wales has a range of existing policies and guidance relevant to extreme heat including measures delivered through Natural Resources Wales, Public Health Wales, and Welsh Government Technical Advice Notes (TANs) there is currently no single, coordinated framework focused on responding to heat stress.

Existing arrangements provide an important foundation, but gaps remain, particularly around protections for workers exposed to high temperatures. Trade unions have highlighted the absence of clear legal maximum working temperatures as an area where further action is needed to safeguard health and wellbeing as heatwaves become more frequent and severe.

Ruth Campbell of Climate Cymru remarked: “This is not normal. This is not a one-off. This is what climate change looks like, right now, in our communities, in our homes, and at our workplaces. Scientists have been clear: extreme heat events will become more frequent, more intense, and more prolonged as the climate crisis deepens.

“The Welsh Government needs a joined up plan across the board, not just with guidance, but with a comprehensive, long-term plan to keep us safe.”

Lila Nunn Coordinator of the Youth Climate Ambassadors for Wales said: “I'm Lila, I’m twenty and the Coordinator of the Youth Climate Ambassadors for Wales and currently at London Climate Action Week.

“The irony has certainly not been lost on attendees here, in fact I hope it works to empower and unite collective change, at a time where, in the face of record breaking heatwaves, mitigating against climatic hazards is increasingly urgent.”

Climate Cymru is a coalition of organisations and individuals across Wales united by a commitment to tackling the climate and nature emergency.

They state that the types of measures that should be included in a nationwide heat action plan include:

  • Establishing public cooling centres across Wales, libraries, community halls and retrofitted public buildings should be designated as cool refuges today
  • Mandate workplace safety rules, including a maximum working temperature. While health and safety legislation currently sets no upper limit, all employers to take all reasonable steps to achieve comfortable temperatures, assess the risks to employees, and take additional steps to protect staff who are particularly vulnerable, including pregnant workers, older workers, and those with underlying health conditions
  • Develop a strategy for managing extreme heat in schools. Education is devolved ,the Senedd can act on this now, without waiting for Westminster
  • Deploy preventative health checks and proactive outreach for at-risk groups across all Welsh local authorities
  • Retrofit all public buildings in Wales for climate resilience ,energy-efficient buildings keep communities cool in summer as well as warm in winter
  • Expand urban green spaces, tree cover, and green infrastructure in Welsh towns and cities to reduce the urban heat island effect
  • Mandate improved building insulation standards for new build and retrofit to reduce heat vulnerability across Welsh housing stock
  • Fully fund and implement a National Heat Action Plan for Wales, modelled on best international practice and tailored to Welsh communities, landscapes, and climate projections