Climate Resilience Headlines

He is right. Our weather this year has shown that the UK is not isolated to a warming planet. We had  very wet winter. The Met Office have confirmed that this summer is provisionally the hottest on record. It really has been the manifestation of what a lot of climate commentators have been talking about for several years. And it is a problem we cannot ignore and whilst we might have missed a lot of opportunities to mitigate, we now must have a real focus on how we adapt to a pattern of wetter winters and warmer springs and summers. 

Of course, climate change is not simply a UK issue, it is a global one. Quite often this is the argument raised when looking at the question and cost of intervening to tackle climate challenges.  

What we want to do as part of this new hub is reflect on the latest activity and thinking around climate issues, to put in context the wider societal journey to decarbonisation and highlight the links to the challenges of the transition for the housing sector itself. 

Whilst we experienced hot summer days and nights, the first six months of 2026 were also the best ever for certified renewable installations in the UK with solar taking the lead according to data shared by MCS. Their data on certified installations shows that over 2 million solar installations have now been recorded across the UK making it the low-carbon technology of choice for most households. 

August saw the launch of plug-in solar panels into the UK market for the first time ever.  

This growth in solar, alongside other low-carbon technologies, brings the Energy as a Service debate back into focus for housing providers. Energy modellers examining how the energy system can decarbonise have long discussed turning homes into energy hubs that meet their own needs. Although this approach shifts energy infrastructure from capital expenditure to operating expenditure, it remains underused in housing. We explore this further in our recent retrofit-finance-playbook">Innovation in Retrofit Funding playbook.  

Whilst the political consensus around climate change that has been held for a number of years is under threat like never before, there have been some recent pronouncements showing some countries looking to take decisive action. 

Wales has announced its intention to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. A new legally binding target that will place them a decade ahead of the current UK target. This will be combined with what they call the delivery of “substantive nature recovery by 2050”. 

In Europe, Germany has recently published a roadmap to phase out fossil fuels by 2045, following in the footsteps of France and the Netherlands. The plan focuses on electrifying transport, home heating and industry alongside replacing fossil fuel power generation with renewables. Presently renewables supply about 55% of Germany’s electricity. 

The climate debate in this country often includes the retort “well what is the point, what are China doing?” Interestingly as they transition their own economy it has been announced that solar has overtaken coal as China’s largest source of installed power capacity. Again, this looks at a system approach, which is mirrored in the UK, where the “low hanging fruit” comes from the decarbonisation of  power generation sources. In all countries we are now moving closer to consumers and the tricky conundrum of how they need to be convinced to adapt their lifestyles to a changing climate. 

Warnings will also naturally come with this changing climate. 

A new UN report, Limiting Overshoot outlines that it is no longer possible to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees (the long held aim of the Paris Agreement) but time still exists for this to only be a temporary overshoot, but that will require nations to redouble their efforts to phase out fossil fuels and reduce other sources of emissions. 

At a recent UN meeting Ed Milliband shared the findings of a report that had previously been suppressed which shows how climate and nature crises such as the upcoming El Nino can threaten national security and defence through the collapse of natural systems. 

As always plenty to talk about, both frightening and with some positive signs. We will regularly update you on some of the climate headlines you might have missed and pick up the discussion in our new Climate Resilience podcast series.  

Andy & Ruth

By Ruth Dent, Chief Experience Officer, RE:GEN & Andy Cameron-Smith, Communications & Partnership Director, Healthy Homes Hub

Image credit: Adobe Stock