Three in 4 UK newspaper articles on record-breaking heatwave didn’t mention climate

It comes following a study released by World Weather Attribution found climate change was “unequivocally to blame” for June’s heat conditions. It stated: “In 1976, when some of the previous European records were set, the 2026 temperatures would have been virtually impossible to occur in June, while also highly unlikely at any time of the year.”[2] 

The snap analysis also found that less than 1 in 25 articles referring to the extreme heat and climate change additionally mentioned the phrase “net zero”. British scientist Professor Sir Jim Skea, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stated earlier this year: “It’s chemistry and physics that if you want to stop global warming, you have to achieve net zero emissions.”[3] 

The research reveals notable differences between titles. The Sun had the lowest percentage of articles about the heatwave referring to climate change, at 6%. The FT (64%) had the highest percentage. The analysis found zero examples of articles about the heatwave mentioning net zero in the Sun, and just 1% in the Mirror and the Express. 

Recent polling points to high levels of public confusion around net zero. A YouGov survey from Climate Barometer in April 2025 found 22% of those surveyed wrongly thought net zero meant ‘producing no carbon emissions at all’, rising to 41% amongst supporters of Reform UK.[4] A separate survey last year by Keele University found that nearly one in four did not understand the term net zero at all.[5] Meanwhile, a YouGov poll found 71% of Brits think the heatwave was likely to have been caused by climate change.[6] 

Ed Hawkins, Professor of Climate Science at the University of Reading, 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.  

“British society, and the infrastructure on which we depend, is built the for climate of the past, not the climate of the present or our hotter future. Thousands of excess deaths occurred in the recent European heatwave, demonstrating again that we have to adapt to rising temperatures and recognise that reaching net zero is the only scientific route to stopping these extreme heatwaves getting ever hotter." 

The analysis examined media articles in top UK national newspapers 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 specific phrase “net zero”. 

Last month a letter by leading UK climate scientists – written to senior news editors at the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, Sky and Global, and media regulators OFCOM and IPSO – expressed “concern" about recent media coverage of extreme weather, climate change and net zero. The letter, which first appeared in Press Gazette, stated: "While it is right to debate policy and implementation, coverage increasingly overlooks the fundamental "why". Net zero is not an arbitrary slogan, but a boundary dictated by the laws of physics.”[7] 

Gareth Redmond-King, Head of International at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit said: “The link between all three recent periods of extreme heat and climate change is indisputable. Detailed studies by scientists have shown that the temperatures and conditions experienced across much of the UK and Europe would have been virtually impossible without humans' burning of fossil fuels, and climate change's fingerprints and DNA are all over the heatwave crime scenes.   

“This conclusion is by no means limited to recent heatwaves. Extreme weather events of all kinds caused by climate change pose serious threats to lives, livelihoods and security – with the added growing risk of hitting tipping points, such as the collapse of Atlantic currents that could leave the UK much colder and struggling to grow food. These will only worsen if we don’t reach net zero emissions and bring balance back to our climate.  

“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.” 

Dr Chloe Brimicombe, Postdoctoral Researcher in climate science at the University of Oxford, said: “The media is an important way of communicating climate change and the impacts. These findings show more needs to be done to ensure the heat and other extreme weather are directly linked to climate change in the news media. We know that the only way to stop extreme heat becoming more intense is a just transition to net zero." 

"For a long time, the language and perception around climate change was confusing - the evidence is clear – the public know that climate change is a risk and want to see action, we simply need the interventions and innovations scaled up and acted upon." 

A report published last year by Dr James Painter from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) found that a growing proportion of media articles focussed on net zero were failing to mention climate change.[8] Analysis published in March by Climate News Tracker also found that net zero is also rarely explained on TV news, with 95% of morning and 76% of 10pm bulletins on BBC, ITV and Sky offering no definition.[9] 

The research was carried out by investigating search results using the Factiva news monitoring tool.