Most UK media reports on June heatwave failed to mention climate crisis

 

Most UK media reports on June heatwave failed to mention climate crisis

 

Exclusive: Analysis of nearly 2,500 articles finds almost three-quarters made no reference to global heating

 

Fiona Harvey Environment editor

Tue 14 Jul 2026 06.00 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/14/most-coverage-june-heatwave-did-not-mention-climate-crisis

 

Most of the UK media stories about the record-breaking heatwave that struck in June failed to mention the climate crisis, analysis has found.

 

Nearly 2,500 articles about the extreme heat – when temperatures topped 37C, a record for the time of year – appeared in the UK’s nine main national daily media publications. But nearly three-quarters of them – about 72% – left out any mention of global heating or the climate, according to the analysis by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU).

 

Even fewer pieces drew a link between the heatwave and government policies designed to tackle the climate crisis – less than one in 20 heatwave stories mentioned “net zero”.

 

June’s heatwave was the second of the year, after a hot spell in May when temperatures reached 35C, smashing the previous record for the month. A third heatwave hit last week and is set to continue for at least some of this week.

 

Research published on Monday by Imperial College London found that about 2,700 people had died from overheating in the UK in May and June, and about 1,100 of these would not have died without the additional heat that the climate crisis added to temperatures in May and June.

 

Human actions, in the form of burning fossil fuels and intensifying agriculture, have supercharged the hot weather, scientists warned. An attribution study found the extreme weather would not have been possible without human interference in the climate system.

 

Ed Hawkins, professor of climate science at the University of Reading, said the public needed the media to explain the climate crisis better.

 

He said: “When extreme heatwaves occur, it is critical that the British public are made aware in the media they consume that greenhouse gas emissions, primarily from burning fossil fuels, have made those heatwaves hotter than they would otherwise have been.”

 

The analysis examined media articles in top UK national media publications from Monday 22 June to Sunday 28 June. It tracked how many articles including the phrase “extreme heat” or “heatwave” also referred to “climate change” or a similar term such as “climate” or “global warming”. It also tracked how many of those same articles also referred to the phrase “net zero”.

 

The ECIU used the Factiva media database to analyse the output, in print and online, of nine UK national newspapers from 22 June to 28 June: the Express, the Financial Times, the Guardian, the Independent, the Mail, the Mirror, the Sun, the Telegraph and the Times.

 

The FT scored highest on relating extreme heat stories to the climate, with nearly two thirds making the link – that is, 50 out of its 78 stories over the period. The Guardian came next, with roughly half of its heat-related stories drawing the link to the climate crisis – 64 out of 131 articles.

 

The Independent was the most prolific of the outlets studied, with 783 heatwave stories over the period, of which 304 – roughly 39% – mentioned the climate. About a fifth of the Mail’s more than 300 heatwave stories referred to global heating, and about one in eight of the 400-plus stories in the Express.

 

The Mirror also had a large number of heatwave stories – more than 300 – but only 9% of them mentioned the climate. The Sun came bottom of the ranking, with 69 heatwave stories in the time studied, of which only 6% included a climate angle.

 

The very high numbers of articles for some of these outlets reflects many blogposts and in some cases minor updates to existing online stories. When liveblogs were excluded, the proportion of pieces that included references to the climate came out almost the same for each, except for the Independent, which dropped to about 34%.

 

Gareth Redmond-King, head of international at the ECIU thinktank, said: “The link between all three recent periods of extreme heat and climate change is indisputable.”

 

He added: “If recent heatwaves are the symptom, then climate change is the illness, and net zero is the medicine. When public understanding of this link is so low, it’s vital that the dots are joined between these three concepts to help make us all better.”

 

A Guardian spokesperson said: “The Guardian leads the way in reporting on the link between extreme weather events and the climate crisis, with our coverage presenting global heating as an urgent, factual reality.

 

“Clear, accurate journalism is essential to helping the public understand the climate crisis and the solutions required. Already in 2026, the Guardian has published hundreds of articles mentioning the ‘climate crisis’ or ‘climate emergency’. In 2019, we helped reframe newsroom priorities across the industry by updating our style guide to adopt terms like ‘climate emergency’ and ‘global heating’. Our editorial commitment also drives our choices as a business: we were the first major global news organisation to ban fossil-fuel advertising, divest from fossil fuels, and achieve B Corp certification as we work toward our goal of net-zero emissions.”

 

The other media publications included in the analysis were approached by the Guardian for comment.