Summer 2026 has given Britons a taste of what a ‘normal’ summer might look like in years to come. In addition to record-breaking temperatures and droughts, we’ve seen trains derailing due to warping tracks; we’ve also seen houses burning after wildfires hit the town of Stourbridge. Any normal person seeing all this would rightfully worry about what it means for the future of the country. Richard Tice of Reform UK, meanwhile, wants to double down:
'It's idiotic and bordering on a crime.'
Speaking to @BenKentish, Ecotricity founder @DaleVince reacts to Reform UK's Richard Tice saying we should 'enjoy warm weather and better English wine'. pic.twitter.com/O9ZKeqti1C
— LBC (@LBC) August 17, 2026
Tice might talk about ‘adaptation’, but unless we drastically reduce our emissions, the pace of breakdown will outstrip what we can adapt to.
Britain is burning, so enter Richard Tice
In the offending comments, Richard Tice said the following:
Of course climate change is real. But the idea, where is the evidence that Net Zero is going to stop it? Where is the evidence? There isn’t any.
‘Net Zero’ is a plan to reduce the emissions that have fuelled human-driven climate change. So really, Tice is asking where the evidence of climate change is. The answer is it’s here.
And here.
And here.
You’ll note there’s quite a lot of evidence at this point. This is because millions of scientists the world over have dedicated themselves towards studying it. On the flip side, you have men like Tice, who haven’t studied it, and probably wouldn’t understand the results if they did.
Tice continued:
Climate change has always happened, it always will.
Asteroids have always hit the Earth; that wouldn’t be a good reason to do nothing if we knew a big one was on a collision course with the planet.
Adaptation
Richard Tice added:
Maybe the smarter thing to do is to adapt to it than think arrogantly that you can stop it.
It seems fair to suggest that if we can cause climate change then we can also reduce and reverse it. The fact that Tice is suggesting otherwise shows he’s not a very ambitious politician.
To be fair, we do certainly need to adapt to climate change as well as trying to stop it. This is why the Green Party is supporting workers:
Extreme weather is the new normal – and it threatens all of us.
Arriva bus drivers in London are striking today after having to work in dangerously hot conditions on board buses.
We need a maximum workplace temperature to force employers to protect workers. pic.twitter.com/ljNYuZbAEc
— The Green Party (@TheGreenParty) August 14, 2026
How does Reform plan for the UK to adapt?
Umm…
Getting warm, Richard Tice?
Richard Tice later said:
I think when it’s a bit warm, let’s enjoy it.
Ten years ago, you could casually throw this sort of comment out there. Now, people are aware that climate change isn’t something which is going to happen in future; it’s happening right now:
New pictures of houses burning last Thursday from the wildfire in Stourbridge.
We need to start thinking about wildfire mitigation measures because as droughts like this become more common with climate change, so will the fires become more frequent. pic.twitter.com/KifaEG4Obj
— Met4Cast – UK Weather (@Met4CastUK) August 17, 2026
Tice finished by saying:
And if it means that English wine and sparkling wine gets better and better, fantastic. That means we can take on the French. Fantastic. Let’s celebrate some of these things rather than just be sort of doom and gloom about it.
You can call it “doom and gloom” if you like, but the following are literally things which happened this month:
Hard to believe this is the UK.
Unfortunately the scenes in Stourbridge will almost certainly become more frequent as our climate continues to rapidly warm. pic.twitter.com/bx1OBEfN0A
— Met4Cast – UK Weather (@Met4CastUK) August 13, 2026
We've just had record breaking heat, and the likelihood of two similar derailments in the hottest part of the country happening in quick succession without a common cause is low.
— Gareth Dennis (@GarethDennis) August 14, 2026
Paid up oil execs in trenchcoats
Of course, it’s no surprise that Reform politicians would support more climate change. Harriet Williamson of Novara Media described Reform as a “handful of oil execs in a trench coat“. She also reported:
Reform’s treasurer and billionaire property developer Nick Candy has been busy wooing wealthy offshore donors in low-tax jurisdictions like Monaco, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates. In fact, in 2024, more than half of the party’s donations – £2.5m – came from those with residences in low-tax countries or business interests in offshore jurisdictions. Part of this new funding drive involves soliciting cash from oil and gas executives. Candy told the Financial Times last month that Reform’s targets are donors in the fossil fuel sector who are “very disillusioned” with UK taxes on the industry’s profits. He also shared that he recently met an energy executive who donated £100k to the party and pledged to give up to £1m.
At this point, a failure to reduce emissions will ensure that climate change gets worse and worse. This is because of ‘tipping points‘. One example of a tipping point would be the permafrost melting, resulting in more methane emissions; another would be the oceans becoming so hot they cease to trap carbon.
Richard Tice is right that the climate has changed in the past. What he fails to mention is that if human civilisation had existed in those periods, we likely wouldn’t have survived.
Reform politicians can talk about ‘adaptation’, but there is no adapting the worst-case climate scenario. And refusing to reduce emissions would ensure such a scenario became inevitable.
Featured image via Bloomberg / BBC
By Willem Moore
