The cold, clinical term “excess deaths” simply means the difference between the number of deaths expected in a population in a given period and the actual number of deaths in that period.

The heatwaves this June resulted in a reported 10,000 excess deaths across Europe, according to European mortality monitoring organization EuroMOMO, work backed by the WHO, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, and Denmark’s Statens Serum Institut.

In the UK alone, scientists estimated that about 440 people a day died at the peak of the heatwave, with a total number of premature, heat-induced deaths at around 2700.

The latest high temperatures have been erroneously referred to as “the new normal”. But the truth is the current weather is just a stepping stone to even higher temperatures next year and the year after and the year after.

It’s been well understood for decades that ending fossil fuel use is the fastest way to slow the progression of global heating. Despite that – and despite international commitments made – the amount of greenhouse gases emitted globally is higher each year. In 2025, the world emitted more GHG’s than any other year in human history, 60.63 billion tonnes of CO₂ equivalent.

Even if a magic wand made all energy 100% carbon-free overnight, the greenhouse gases already released would continue to warm the planet. There is no “off” switch for global heating.

While there are an increasing number of organizations, vendors, and experts working to reduce emissions in all sectors, the impact of heat on workers needs to become a regular part of business planning now.

Putting workers first

“We’ve had this for a few years now, and it just seems to be getting worse and worse,” says Spencer Macdonald, National Secretary of Bectu, the UK’s union for creative crafts and crew. “The temperature seems to be breaking records every year. We’ve ended up just issuing general guidance because there is no official maximum temperature for workers.”

In the UK, the Approved Code of Practice to the WHSWR (Workplace Health, Safety and Welfare Regulations 1992) says that the temperature inside a workplace should be at least 16°C, or 13°C if the work involves rigorous physical effort. But there is no upper limit recommended. After all, it’s Britain, why would you have to worry about extreme heat?

“With the minimum temperature, workers can either say you need to put in place systems to increase the heat, or they’re entitled to to refuse to work. But there’s no maximum, so the temperature could be any ridiculous amount and there’s no legislation to say ‘that’s unacceptable’. But we try to say, actually there is. Employers still have a duty of care. If workers are in a space where the heat and humidity is unbearable, they need to put in steps, because of their duty of care.”

READ Bectu’s current guidance on temperature at work

Bectu is in the process of doing work on improving welfare in facilities, which should be finalized and published in the next few months. One focus is construction, which often involves outdoor work. Considerations include providing shade and readily accessible fluids. The proposals is being shared with facilities operators now for their feedback, with plans to roll the provisions out to the rest of crew departments.

The creative industries make things. That means workshops, which are generally close spaces, often with heat generating equipment in them. Those workshops aren’t designed for these sorts of temperatures. If they’re using heavy machinery that generates heat as well, and that compounds the problem. We have asked a few productions if they can stagger their times, so that they can come in a lot earlier when it’s cooler, and maybe go home earlier, and also have breaks in between. Sometimes in those workshops, they have to wear PPE as well, which is quite heavy. So we’ve asked for proper ventilation among other things.“

Bectu communicates regularly with the creative unions in France and the US, though the issues around work in extreme temperatures haven’t come to the fore yet.

Sustainability is about human wellbeing

Tilly Ashton is an experience production manager and sustainability expert. As Sustainability Advisor at Cardiff-based production company Severn Screen, she has been a key driver in Wales’ industry-leading film and TV sustainability transformation. But for her, sustainability is about more than just emissions reduction, it’s ultimately about human well being.

“On a personal level and professional level, I am fully committing to the decarbonisation process and mandated net zero targets, but also aware of the need to risk assess, mitigate, and adapt,” says Ashton, “The most recent heat wave has really galvanized conversation. It’s as if our role is slightly shifting in terms of building momentum around the need to decarbonize and build circular economies, to also be very much aware of the literal risks to life when you’re working in extreme weather conditions.”

Weather changes associated with global heating don’t mean only higher temperatures. Heat is energy, which creates more energetic weather on all fronts. Greater swings in barometric pressure mean more violent storms. Heat holds on to more water, so that means bigger downpours – of rain in summer, or of snow in winter. And these extremes become less and less predictable. The Rube Goldberg contraptions at the heart of complex systems mean that outcomes can be sudden and bizarre.

Recently there is more study being given to the potential collapse of the AMOC (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation), a deep sea current, that travels some of the same ocean as the Gulf Stream and brings warm water to the North Atlantic. It’s the reason Britain has had such a stable and comfortable climate as compared to grim-wintered Canada, which shares similar latitudes. Global heating is causing the AMOC to slow down, which could mean that at a certain point, the heating gets turned off for the UK and Northern Europe, bringing colder, drier winters, and probably making it much harder to grow food. Getting workers ready for a climate-changed world means preparing them for extremely high temperatures now, but then for potentially cold Canada-style temperatures in 20 years (maybe we can look forward to one, perfectly mild summer in 2035)

In the recent heatwave, one production crewmember reported that the heat made them feel “panicky”. A reasonable response to emergency weather, but extreme heat also has been shown to have a direct effect on cognition and emotions – a real liability when you’re trying to do precise creative work.

“In the June heatwave, productions were having to adapt rapidly, on the hoof. Two productions I knew of asked their sustainability managers to liaise with their health and safety people to help share the load of making sure that case and crew were ok.

“You’re already locked into locations and schedules. To cancel is a big decision that has to be taken very mindfully. The interim practical mitigation that’s been going on has been conversations with health and safety managers on the ground.”

The melting of workflows and the AC crisis

In very few instances does extreme heat help technology operate more efficiently. In a production environment that is fully digitalized, infrastructure can collapse quickly. Anecdotal reports of phones, ipads, and connections failing were a regualar occurrence during the last heatwave. Video streaming connections that would be taken for granted, slowed to a halt as overheated laptoos refused to send video at any useful rate. More than one YouTuber apologized for not being able to do their regular livestream.

If you are in a remote, overheating location, phones seizing up can lead to a production grinding to a halt, or should someone need medical attention, result in something much, much worse.

Industry sources also told ¡AU! that while certain productions made efforts to provide cast and talent with protection against the heat, crew and craft teams were left feeling like they were on their own. Naturally, a make-up trailer without air conditioning is just a nightmare palace. Talent can’t be costumed and made up in a furnace. But crew from more than one production said that they were left with makeshift solutions for cooling, without consideration for how much heat risk their jobs might entail. Caterers for example, are already working long hours, in temperatures 10 degrees higher than the rest of the crew, often in mobile kitchens well away from an air conditioned structures. They are expected to deliver on time, every time, and are among the most anonymous people on set.

Production energy supplier OnBio, which specializes in renewable fuel, also provides temperature control equipment. OnBio Business Coordinator Hayley Wallace told ¡AU! that there wasn’t a single air conditioning unit on their shelves, but that requests for units had come in ad hoc and suddenly, often being needed on the day. There seems to be virtually no provision for air conditioning ahead of a production. If you have to make a guess on weather conditions at a date in the distant future, it makes sense that you might not include air conditioning in your production budget. But heatwaves are going to become more frequent and more extreme. Given that we are also coming up on an El Niño, producers can virtually guarantee that temperature mitigation will be needed on shoots, and that there will be competition to procure these. If you want to protect your crew, best to put it in the budget now and reserve your AC units in advance.

“Ultimately what you’re talking about is potentially a risk to life,” says Ashton. “When you combine that heat with film working patterns – working strange hours, tight turnarounds, night shoots, body clock shifts, those exhaustion impacts on the human body – I am not a medical professional, but I imagine that body is vulnerable to those extremes.”

We might think of the world of post production as isolated from the issues affecting crew who are often working outdoors, but the fact is that even in high end facilities air conditioning is not always a given. As previously mentioned, there is no legal requirement to keep temperatures down in the workplace, and while your screening room may have air conditioning and a fridge full of the clients favorite champagne, this isn’t always the case for a small animation team working on a previs.

The media industry is built on the backs of freelancers and home air conditioning has been considered a luxury for most of British history. Freelancers are often left to solve the heat problem by themselves – and are left having to answer for why their overheated laptop is taking ten times longer than usual to upload a file.

London-based post house Framestore told us that they had offered employees flexibility in working arrangements, with some people staying home, or coming in at staggered hours to avoid rush hour crowds. Even if your workplace and your home are air conditioned, a rush hour crush in public transport at 38 degrees is not something to be toyed with.

Tough and smart need to work together

Production teams – and I’m sure it’s a phenomenon as old as medieval travelling players – are proud of being able to put together something brilliant under difficult conditions. While we openly object to the brutality an old school director might have put his cast and crew through, there’s still a part of crew member that is proud of its ability to endure and to realize the impossible demand. This macho culture – embraced by women as much as men – can endanger lives.

“If you’re making decisions from an air-conditioned trailer, that’s very different from experiencing what it’s like on set, or in front of the cameras, or under the lights, or in the middle of a gravel car park. It’s improtant that production making those quick decisions about mitigating climate risks know how it feels for everybody, even if it’s just a quick walk down to set and back.

“There’s a stoicism in our industry, which comes from the long hours culture. You don’t want to be the one on the team that starts complaining or starts being demanding. It’s very much about sharing the load and getting through this together. If you’re not coping, do you feel that you can speak up and say, ‘I’m feeling a bit faint, I’m feeling a bit thirsty? I think I need to go inside for a bit.’More often than not, I would say people aren’t going to speak up, and then that’s where you’ve got that risk to life. If somebody is being stoic and just putting up with it, they’re not going to get the help that they need quick enough.”