72% Of Nearly 2,500 Articles In UK Media About June's Record-Crushing Heatwave Never Mentioned Global Warming

Most of the UK media stories about the record-breaking heatwave that struck in June failed to mention the climate crisis, analysis has found. Nearly 2,500 articles about the extreme heat – when temperatures topped 37C, a record for the time of year – appeared in the UK’s nine main national daily media publications. But nearly three-quarters of them – about 72% – left out any mention of global heating or the climate, according to the analysis by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU).

Even fewer pieces drew a link between the heatwave and government policies designed to tackle the climate crisis – less than one in 20 heatwave stories mentioned “net zero”.

June’s heatwave was the second of the year, after a hot spell in May when temperatures reached 35C, smashing the previous record for the month. A third heatwave hit last week and is set to continue for at least some of this week.Research published on Monday by Imperial College London found that about 2,700 people had died from overheating in the UK in May and June, and about 1,100 of these would not have died without the additional heat that the climate crisis added to temperatures in May and June.

EDIT

The Independent was the most prolific of the outlets studied, with 783 heatwave stories over the period, of which 304 – roughly 39% – mentioned the climate. About a fifth of the Mail’s more than 300 heatwave stories referred to global heating, and about one in eight of the 400-plus stories in the Express. The Mirror also had a large number of heatwave stories – more than 300 – but only 9% of them mentioned the climate. The Sun came bottom of the ranking, with 69 heatwave stories in the time studied, of which only 6% included a climate angle.

EDIT

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/14/most-coverage-june-heatwave-did-not-mention-climate-crisis