Climate activists slam ‘foolhardy’ Lord Frost for saying rising temperatures ‘likely to benefit’ UK

Climate activists have slammed a prominent Tory Peer as “foolhardy” after he made a “misguided speech” on the benefits of rising temperatures to the UK.

Lord Frost, the former Tory minister and Brexit negotiator, said rising temperatures are “likely to be beneficial” for the UK as “seven times” more people “die from cold”.

He said there is “too little debate on climate change”, adding that critics “find it increasingly difficult to get a hearing in the media” but “in this House, at least, we cannot be censored”.

In reference to claims former UKIP and Brexit Party leader, Nigel Farage, had his account closed to his views not aligning with Coutts bank's "values", Frost followed with: “Though it seems we do run some risk of losing our bank accounts if we dare to speak up.”

He told the upper chamber he is “sceptical” about mitigating the impacts of climate change and questioned the need to adapt to “the health consequences of rising temperatures” due to the number of cold-related mortalities.

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: “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.”

He added: “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.”

Mike Childs, head of science, policy and research at Friends of the Earth, said it is “foolhardy and misguided to talk about ‘benefits’ of deadly heatwaves here or globally.”

He told NationalWorld: “Reducing winter deaths is straightforward – the government must insulate our homes, which will also help to keep homes cooler in the summer and bring down our energy bills by vastly expanding cheap, homegrown renewables. 

“But Lord Frost’s party has an abysmal record on this and is now looking to further row back on the green policies needed to ensure we have a safe, clean and affordable future.”

Lord Frost’s comments come as Europe has been ravaged by soaring temperatures including Greece with some 19,000 people evacuated from several locations on the island of Rhodes as wildfires burned for a sixth day.

Up to 10,000 Britons are estimated to be on the fire-ravaged island, with repatriation flights to rescue holidaymakers landing back in the UK. Overnight, evacuations were also ordered on the western island of Corfu, where more than 2,000 people including tourists were moved to safety.

Temperatures also soared in the US Southwest and Mexico, with reports of people dying in Phoenix after suffering burns from super-heated roads, while China also experienced its hottest ever day at 52.2C.

World Weather Attribution, a group of scientists from the UK and the Netherlands, said the heatwaves will get hotter and happen more frequently until the world stops burning fossil fuels.

However, Lord Frost urged the government to “move away” from “high-cost” mitigation efforts which “involve massive investments in unproductive renewables, huge changes in lifestyles as well as crushing economic growth.”

He advised that the government instead invests in “effective energy production, nuclear, gas and other technologies as they emerge” and “spend the manageable sums that we need to on adaptation so we can adjust to the perfectly manageable consequences of slowly rising temperatures.”

Whereas Bronwen Smith-Thomas, Interim Co-Director at The Climate Coalition, told NationalWorld the UK must “urgently replace polluting fossil fuel energy with affordable renewables and increase energy efficiency.”

She said there is “no silver lining to rising global temperatures” and “our health report found that almost 12 million people in the UK are dangerously vulnerable to future summer heatwaves or flooding.”

Tory former environment minister Lord Deben, who recently left his role as chairman of the Climate Change Committee, said the weather is “changing dramatically” and “that means that we can’t talk about deaths as Lord Frost did”.

He added: “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.”

Green Party peer Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb said Lord Frost had promoted “denialist tropes” and “right-wing conspiracy theories” in his speech.