Rising temperatures are “likely to beneficial” for Britain as more people die of cold than heat in this country, Lord Frost has said.
The Tory former minister and Brexit negotiator said he is “sceptical” about mitigating the impacts of climate change, urging the Government to “move away” from “high-cost” mitigation efforts.
He told the upper chamber he agreed more has to be spent on things like flood protection but questioned the need to adapt to “the health consequences of rising temperatures” before citing cold-related mortality.
Lord Frost’s comments came as Greece’s capital, Athens, endures its hottest July in half a century, with scorching temperatures also affecting other southern European countries like Italy and Spain.
Speaking during a debate on the level of Government preparation for the impacts that climate change will have on health, the economy, food security and the environment, the Tory peer said: “We have all too little debate on climate change.
“It’s all the more important that we have it now since critics of any aspects of this policy find it increasingly difficult to get a hearing in the media.
“Here in this House, at least, we cannot be censored, though it seems we do run some risk of losing our bank accounts if we dare to speak up.”
He noted “more will need to be spent on things like flood protection and reservoirs”, but speaking about calls for the UK to adapt to the health consequences of rising temperatures, Lord Frost said: “Digging deeper, what are those consequences of the hotter, warmer summers and warmer, wetter winters?
“At the moment, seven times as many people die from cold as from heat in Britain. Rising temperatures are likely to be beneficial.
“The Government Actuary’s Department, no less, wrote in April this year, and I quote, ‘it is the low winter temperatures that have a greater effect on the number of deaths’. Since the start of the millennium, a decline in deaths from cold temperature periods has more than offset any increase in the number of deaths associated with warmer temperature over the same period.
“Now, I’m not sceptical about adaptation. I’m sceptical about mitigation.
“I suggest that the rational thing to do is to move away from the current high-cost mitigation efforts, efforts which also involve massive investments in unproductive renewables, huge changes in lifestyles as well as crushing economic growth, and pursue mitigation in a different way.
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“Investing in effective energy production, nuclear, gas, other technologies as they emerge, and meanwhile, spend the manageable sums that we need to on adaptation so we can adjust to the perfectly manageable consequences of slowly rising temperatures as they emerge.”
Speaking after Lord Frost, Labour former minister Lord Whitty said: “The idea that we can have a choice between mitigation and adaptation is absurd. We need both.”
Referring to the recent by-election in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, he added: “As to the current furore in the newspapers over the weekend after a by-election in which 250 people voted the wrong way, we have the pressure on the leaders of our two main parties to back off from their commitment to green policies and to climate change.
“I find that absolutely absurd.”
Some Tories have been calling for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to delay climate pledges after the party narrowly held on to Uxbridge and South Ruislip in last week’s by-election, with Labour’s failure to win being attributed to the expansion of London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) scheme.
Tory former environment minister Lord Deben, who recently left his role as chairman of the Climate Change Committee, said: “We do have a certainty here. The weather is changing. It’s changing dramatically and we have actually to sort out our acceptance to it.
“And that means that we can’t talk about deaths as Lord Frost did. I don’t think the families of people who died because of heat are very much cheered by the fact that there are fewer people dying because of cold.
“The fact of the matter is we have to deal with these problems. We have to do something about our care homes, most of which – not just many, but most of which – are entirely unsuited for the weather that we are going to have.”
Concerns were also raised on the link between climate change and underlying health conditions.
Independent crossbencher Lord Kakkar, professor of surgery at University College London, said: “The impact of climate change can be seen very much as having a multiplying effect on underlying predisposition to poor health outcome.
“We also know that the nature of diseases that we will experience as the climate changes in our own country will need to be carefully planned for.
“So we will see, for instance, more vector-related diseases, mosquito-related diseases such as Zika virus, West Nile fever and indeed, potentially, malaria in the future if the predictions are correct.”
