UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology interview

Rajat Gupta contributed to an expert interview with the UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST), highlighting the need to better align net-zero policy with passive cooling, indoor environmental monitoring and equity-sensitive climate adaptation. The discussion focused on three key principles:

• Moving beyond mapping outdoor climate hazards to understanding people’s actual exposure to heat within buildings.

• Recognising how care settings, housing quality and tenure can shape vulnerability and people’s capacity to adapt to extreme heat.

• Integrating net-zero retrofit with measures to reduce summertime overheating, prioritising passive approaches such as solar shading and ventilation, alongside low-energy solutions such as ceiling fans.