The tradition of holding GCSE and A Level exams in June should end because climate change means school halls are too hot for children to perform well, it was argued on Monday.
Baroness Brown, chair of adaptation for the UK Committee on Climate Change, said exams should be moved to cooler months.
Her comments came after a Met Office report said extreme weather had become ‘the new normal’ in Britain as a result of global warming.
Baroness Brown told the BBC’s Today Programme: “Our children take their most important exams of their lives at the hottest time of the year, often in very hot school halls with big plate glass windows. Why do we make them do that in June?
“Maybe we should do that at a different time of the year when they would be more productive and able to think better – we know that hot conditions affect people’s performance and productivity.”
Met Office experts have said the UK’s climate is “notably different” from just a few decades ago as the latest state of the UK climate report shows the impact of human-caused global warming on the UK’s weather, seas, people and wildlife.
Mike Kendon, Met Office climate scientist and lead author of the report, said: “It’s the extremes of temperature and rainfall that is changing the most, and that’s of profound concern, and that’s going to continue in the future.”
The report said that the last three years have been in the top five warmest on record for the UK, and comes as the country experiences its third heatwave of the year so far.
Last year was the fourth warmest in records dating back to 1884, while the year had the warmest May and warmest spring on record – already beaten by 2025’s record hot spring.
Baroness Brown said: “We need to learn those hot weather behaviours that you might see in the south of France which would be that you would close your windows or shutters or curtains during the day where the air outside is hotter than the air inside your house and open them at night
“I know that’s not feasible for everybody if you live in a ground floor flat in London it might not be very safe to open your windows at night.
“Where we can we need to try and adopt those hot weather behaviours and making those hot weather changes to our homes as well.”
One year in, Labour has been fiercely criticised over its approach to the environment, including concerns around planning reforms sidelining nature in pursuit of growth.
The crossbench peer said on Monday: “This isn’t going away and this isn’t just ‘oh, we’re having a lovely summer’. This is a real change that we need to respond to and one of the things we need to think a lot more in the UK is how we respond to heat.
“We are trying to persuade the government that we should have a heat strategy. Because heat affects everything.”
After the report’s publication, energy secretary Ed Miliband said Britain’s way of life is “under threat” from climate change.
He said: “Whether it is extreme heat, droughts, flooding, we can see it actually with our own eyes, that it’s already happening, and we need to act.
“That’s why the Government has a central mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower and tackle the climate crisis.”
A Government spokesperson said:“Climate change is a universal issue, and we are taking action to understand the potential impact on education so we can prevent disruption to learning.
“As part of our Plan for Change, our 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy includes almost £20 billion to 2034-35 to rebuild more schools across England – with a further 250 further schools to be selected for the School Rebuilding Programme within the next two years, on top of more than 500 already selected. They will be schools for the future, net zero carbon in operation and designed to withstand future climate risks including increasing summertime temperatures.
“That’s alongside investment of almost £3 billion per year by 2034-35 in capital maintenance and renewal to improve the condition of the school and college estate.”
