The numbers from this summer's heatwave are stark even by recent standards: 100 million people across Western Europe endured temperatures of up to 41°C, with the death toll from the event estimated at 20,000 or more. Seven LIFE-funded projects presented their responses at the European Urban Resilience Forum in Guimarães, Portugal, in June — timing that turned out to be grimly on the nose, as one of the most severe heatwaves on record began to grip the region almost as the forum closed.
Among the projects presented was COOLIFEALMADA, a team building a mobile app to help vulnerable residents locate the nearest cool shelter during a heat emergency — essentially real-time triage infrastructure for a climate hazard that used to be treated as a once-a-decade event.
Why "green infrastructure" stopped being a nice-to-have
For years, European cities have poured investment into flood protection, decarbonisation and energy transition, while heat adaptation lagged behind — despite heat already being one of the deadliest climate hazards globally, hitting older adults, outdoor workers and residents of poorly ventilated housing hardest. That imbalance is now closing fast, and not because of a change of heart. It's because the death tolls have made the cost of not acting impossible to ignore.
The UK isn't insulated from this conversation either. The Climate Change Committee has warned that Britain is effectively built for a climate that no longer exists, with the prospect of nearly nine in ten homes experiencing overheating conditions as temperatures above 40°C become more common by mid-century. Passive cooling, urban greening and — in some cases — mechanical cooling for schools, hospitals and care homes are all now firmly on the table.
The shift place practitioners need to make
An app that finds someone shade sounds like a modest intervention next to a masterplan. But it's a useful reminder of where climate adaptation planning actually needs to sit: not only in the long-range document that sets tree-canopy targets for 2050, but in the operational, emergency-response layer that keeps people alive during the events that are already happening. UK heat strategies are still mostly paper exercises. Barcelona's is a working prototype for what comes after the paper stage.
The UK Climate Change Committee's public reports are free to read and are the clearest single source for how seriously — or not — UK housing and public infrastructure are being adapted for extreme heat.
Climate Change Committee reports →Nick Bolton is Managing Director of Positive Places Ltd. Sticky Places is published fortnightly. Subscribe here.