“It seems as though the weather has written my speech,” began Paul van Zyl, co-founder and CEO at The Conduit.

On Monday, as temperatures once again climbed to unthinkable levels across Europe (and were then broken on a daily basis throughout the week), The Conduit kicked off London Climate Action Week with its second annual conference in partnership with Wellcome.

The full scale of the damage from Europe’s second heatwave of the year won’t be known for several months, if not years, but initial figures are starting to come through. As of writing 40 people are reported to have died in France from drowning  while trying to escape the heat. Over 1,350 schools across France closed and already two young children have died in heat-related deaths. Public transport services were disrupted in the UK, hospital appointments were cancelled, and emergency services across the continent reported surging demand. And a number of LCAW events had to be called off across the city as venues and organisers didn’t want to risk attendees’ safety.

What is clear is that a new health crisis is unfolding. Unlike the pandemics and epidemics that have shaped human history, this one is not caused by a virus or a lack of scientific understanding. It is the result of environmental degradation, rising temperatures, polluted air and unsustainable systems that are harming both the planet and our bodies.

Too often climate discussions are framed as a binary choice between adaptation or mitigation where any talk about the former is considered a surrender of the latter. This should not be the case. On Monday, over 500 attendees heard from leaders in healthcare, policy, activism, business and sustainability about why we need to employ every solution available to us while still maintaining the momentum to fight climate change’s root causes. They underscored the urgency of the challenges also while highlighting a range of practical solutions already making a difference.

Here are five of the most compelling…

1. Talk about climate change in language that resonates

Anyone familiar with the U.S. political landscape will understand that Florida is a conservative state.

A reluctance to talk about climate change is a challenge for Miami mayor Eileen Higgins who has spent years addressing climate-related destruction in one of America’s most politically complex states. Florida faces enormous climate risks. Hurricanes, flooding and rising sea levels already cost billions of dollars annually. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the United States experienced more than $180 billion in weather and climate disaster losses in 2024 alone, with Florida frequently among the hardest-hit states. Yet Higgins argued that talking about climate change directly is often far less effective than framing it in terms of issues people experience every day.

“We have the worst climate for talking about climate,” she said. “When I’m campaigning, I don’t talk about climate change.” Instead, she talks about insurance.

In many parts of Florida, insurance premiums have risen dramatically as insurers respond to increasing climate risks. For some homeowners, annual insurance costs now rival or even exceed mortgage payments. “Everyone knows that is code for climate change,” Higgins said. “Just don’t use climate speak.”

The strategy recognises that climate change does not affect everyone equally. Lower-income households are often concentrated in flood-prone neighbourhoods, have fewer resources to adapt and face greater challenges recovering after disasters. Many of these communities may not identify with environmental messaging, but they understand rising costs, damaged homes and economic insecurity.

2. Brave philanthropy is needed now more than ever

Governments and Big Business are inherently risk adverse. If things go wrong, heads of state roll and the economy tanks. This makes it quite challenging for state and corporate leaders to invest in untested, but potentially highly successful, solutions to big problems.  That initial risk phase is where philanthropy can make a huge difference.

During a panel conversation about investing in health solutions, Naveen Rao, Senior Vice President of Health, The Rockefeller Foundation, explained how philanthropy has changed over the last century.

“If you looked at philanthropies, the last 100 years, we were grant makers,” he explained. “We gave grants, and we need to move away from that mindset. And we are moving from that mindset to becoming market builders and shapers.”

Early-stage funding is notoriously difficult to obtain because most early experiments fail. Rockefeller is now using blended finance to get companies past that initial hurdle. Rao compared his blended finance model to the architectural layout of a building. On the first level is the ground floor of the first loss.

He explained that because the foundation’s endowment is between five and six billion dollars, it has capacity to absorb losses that other organisations do not. Once Rockefeller puts money on the table, other investors will join the project in what he calls the mezzanine layer where more investment can accrue, and results can be seen.

Once those two floors are established, a project can attract the “big bucks because they feel they [investors] can actually make money on this project.”

Alan Dangour, Director, Climate and Health at Wellcome Trust, echoed Rao’s view that philanthropy can go places that government and the private sector cannot. The Wellcome Trust is one of the biggest foundations in the world with an endowment of more than £37bn. Speaking to Paul van Zyl during the opening session, Dangour spoke about how Wellcome is using its influence to translate scientific evidence into sound policy.

“What can we do that governments don’t have the social mandate to do,” he asked. “I think that means that we can ask new questions in new areas. We can engage different people, not the usual researchers, but actually a broader range of of communities.”

“We are a funder of science. We will use that science to tell the story of that science.”

Creative solutions are out there waiting for funders, but with governments slashing research budgets it has become increasingly difficult to launch programmes that could one day pay huge health dividends. By using more blended finance models, philanthropy can help get the ball rolling so that deeper pockets can have the confidence to step in.

3. Avoid short termism and make NHS funding cycles longer

When asked what he would do if he were Prime Minister for a day to make the NHS more sustainable, Joe Burton, Sustainability Transformation Project Lead at UCLH NHS Foundation Trust, did not suggest a flashy new technology or major structural reform. Instead, he proposed something surprisingly simple: longer funding cycles.

The NHS typically operates on annual funding arrangements, which can encourage what Burton described as “short termism”. Leaders are often incentivised to pursue quick wins rather than invest in solutions whose benefits may not become visible for several years.

“Longer cycles mean we save money over the long term,” Burton said. “We could have reusable gowns, we could have more stock in place. We could make the argument that sustainability is better for patients, planets and the bottom line.”

These small changes could add up to significant planetary wins. The NHS is responsible for around 4 per cent of England’s carbon footprint and is the world’s first national health system to commit to reaching net zero. Achieving that ambition will require investments that pay off over years rather than months. During the discussion, panellists pointed out that sustainability progress varies dramatically across the NHS. Some trusts have made substantial advances in reducing waste, improving energy efficiency and decarbonising procurement. Others remain years behind.

Chris Naylor, Senior Fellow at The King’s Fund and Policy Lead at the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare, argued that many of the barriers are structural rather than technical. “There are changes we could make that would be better for taxpayers, patients and the planet,” he said. “But in practice it is hard for people who run these [health] Trusts to get a business case together.”

The challenge is familiar across politics. Many sustainability investments deliver returns after current leaders have moved on. Extending funding cycles could help align financial incentives with long-term public health outcomes.

4. Flooding? Leave it to the beavers

For centuries, London fought nature by building over rivers, draining wetlands and replacing natural systems with concrete infrastructure. Increasingly, cities are rediscovering that nature often provides some of the most effective climate solutions. Deputy Mayor of London for Environment and Energy Mete Coban highlighted one unlikely example: beavers.

Absent from Britain for roughly 400 years, beavers are making a spectacular return. In west London, one area of Ealing had become notorious for flooding. Heavy rainfall frequently overflowed into streets, disrupting nearby transport infrastructure, including Greenford station.

Authorities considered constructing an expensive artificial reservoir. Instead, they introduced beavers. Coban told attendees the story of the first two beavers to return to London, Justin Beaver and Sigourney Beaver. After they had to be separated, Sigourney was relocated to Paradise Fields in Ealing, where she and other beavers quickly got to work.

“Greenford used to regularly flood, but stopped flooding after we brought the beavers to Paradise Fields Park nearby,” said Coban. “This shows if you invest in nature-based solutions, nature can heal these disasters across our city.”

Beavers are often called ecosystem engineers. By building dams, they slow the flow of water through landscapes, reducing downstream flood risk. Their dams create ponds and wetlands that store water during storms and release it gradually over time. Within months of arriving, the Ealing beavers had built multiple dams and transformed the surrounding habitat.

Not only are beavers excellent at flood management, they also provide activities for families. The Ealing Beaver Project offers exciting safari walks through the West London wetlands.

5. Listen to communities

Those most vulnerable to climate change are those who are too often excluded from conversations on what to do about it. Low-income communities know precisely how extreme heat damages their health. These are the market vendors whose produce has gone off before they even reach their stalls. Or the day labourers building our stadiums, or the migrant workers harvesting our vegetables.

During the session, Designing Community-Based Interventions – A Case Study on the Heat Impacts on Maternal Health, Dr Jemilah Mahmood warned that community groups are essential to finding any lasting solutions. Many of the best examples of community involvement come from middle- and low-income countries where local health care workers engage directly with the most vulnerable. She pointed to programmes in east Africa that teach pregnant women simple techniques to mitigate heat such as dipping their feet in cold water.

When asked how she would persuade politicians to adapt community-led approaches to climate change, Mahmood suggested some obstetric advice: “Push, push and push.”

A historical example of a community-led approach to combatting extreme heat was offered during the session, Protecting Workers in a Warming World. Graham Peters of the Greener Jobs Alliance Steering Group, pointed to the Bermondsey strikes of August 1911 when 20,000 women walked off the job to demand better working conditions. That summer was one of the hottest on record. At the time, women could be sacked for fainting on the job or for demanding clean toilets. Through collective action that spread across south London they were able to win concessions from their employers.

Although today’s workers enjoy more protections than their Edwardian counterparts, Peters says more community groups and unions need to get involved in demanding stronger worker protections against heat. “I’m calling on unions to act with businesses,” he urged. “Legal limits are long overdue. Minimum temperatures [for working outdoors] have long been in place. It is crucial we have ”

Unions are starting to organize to demand safe heat limits. As the FT reported this week, representatives from The Trades Union Congress (TUC), the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union, and the Fire Brigades Union have said over 1,000 workers have signed a petition threatening to walk out of the job unless a maximum temperature limit is set.