26 June, 2026

Monday brought the departure of our sixth Prime Minister in a decade, and the start of London Climate Action Week. It was also extremely hot, getting hotter through the week. As rare red weather warnings were issued, indicating risks to health, infrastructure and property, the timing was right for the Climate Change and Health conference at the Conduit, sponsored by our friends at Wellcome.

Wellcome has set itself the task of putting health at the heart of climate action, shaping policies and identifying solutions. While the healthcare sector is a significant contributor to emissions, climate change already affects our health and mental wellbeing, amplifying heat stress, worsening air quality and contributing to the spread of infectious disease, putting pressure on the most vulnerable and deepening existing inequalities.

Speakers highlighted this in stark and varied ways. In Miami, rising water levels push sewage-polluted floodwater into neighbourhoods. Pregnant women exposed to short, extreme temperature spikes without access to cooling and healthcare face higher risks of complications including preterm births and stillbirths. Workers in countries where extreme temperatures are now the norm lose days of pay when conditions make it impossible to be outside, threatening their ability to pay for food, water and medicine.

The solutions lie in adaptation, joining up healthcare systems, policy, finance and innovation. The consistent message from across the day was that when talk of climate change and carbon doesn’t land, turning the spotlight on human health and the impact of extreme weather events does – as Sir David Attenborough said, “No one will care about what they have never experienced” – and that anchoring our discussions about resilience and adaptation in what people are experiencing in their daily lives goes a lot further than talk of net zero and the climate crisis.

While the business lens was less present from the schedule, the implication is clear: businesses will determine whether these solutions scale in practice, shaping everything from how they protect workers from heat stress, safeguard incomes during extreme weather events and ensuring resilience is built into essential supply chains. Climate adaptation isn’t adjacent to core business anymore, but very much part of at the heart of how businesses should be thinking about the world.

By Claire Jost