Classrooms should be no hotter than 25C to protect pupils from global warming, the Climate Change Committee has advised.
Schools should introduce air conditioning to prevent learning days being lost to hot days, it says.
It also calls for maximum temperatures for workplaces, raising the prospect that workers will be sent home on hot days.
Prisons, hospitals and care homes should all be given air conditioning, the committee says, as it predicts that temperatures will soar by the 2050s.
‘The risk of extreme heat in homes and offices is projected to be four times higher in the 2050s, than present day,’ the report said.
‘Overheating leads to an increased risk of death and illness, and reduced productivity.’
It proposed that children should be taught between 16-25C in classrooms to ‘protect staff, pupils and learning’.
‘High temperatures can affect school children’s ability to concentrate,’ it said.
Classrooms should not be hotter than 25C, climate change committee tells the Government
‘There is an estimated average of 1.7 days of extreme overheating in schools and 4.3per cent cumulative lost learning time during the school year in England, under the current climate.’
This, it predicts, will get far worse by 2050, with two weeks of learning lost annually and children in southern England experiencing ‘severe’ cognitive performance loss over summer.
‘Maximum working temperature regulations would address the increasing risks that high temperatures pose to workers’ safety and incentivise the deployment of the necessary cooling,’ it said.
The impact on most workers would be small, but in outdoor sectors such as agriculture and construction, as well as transport and emergency services, it would be greater.
‘Working in high temperatures can lead to difficulty concentrating, fatigue, nausea, loss of consciousness, and death and can increase risks of occupational injuries, particularly in construction and other manual industries,’ it added.
Extreme heat can be mitigated by air conditioning, shade, plants, and adapting uniforms and machinery, it said.
But it raises the prospect that workers could be sent home on hot days if their workplaces do not comply with these regulations.
Former communities secretary Angela Rayner, who championed Labour’s workers’ rights legislation, proposed similar restrictions but these did not make it into the legislation.
Unions backed the call for maximum temperatures in workplaces, with GMB, Unison and Unite supporting the recommendation.
The committee is also calling for more investment in flood defences, water efficiency measures, support for farmers and protection of nature.
