Heatwaves provided the main opportunity to connect extreme weather with the move away from fossil fuels, but the transition was more often a secondary part of the story and was rarely discussed on TikTok.

by Rosie Frost (Journalism Insights Analyst), Alina Sandauer (Content Analyst),  Dr Lissa O’Reilly (Content Analyst), Sam Cardwell (Content Analyst) &  Odyssée Ferrillo (Content Analyst) 

This summer brought repeated opportunities for news organisations to connect extreme weather with the debate about moving away from fossil fuels.

Climate News Tracker analysed UK public service media coverage between 19 June and 31 July 2026, a period when heatwaves, drought and wildfires were making headlines across the UK.

It was also a busy period for climate and energy news, with London Climate Action Week, the UK’s Seventh Carbon Budget passing into law, a change to the energy price cap and BP announcing its exit from North Sea oil and gas.

The transition away from fossil fuels and extreme weather were mentioned in 72 TV and radio programmes. The transition away from fossil fuels featured in 18 online articles and nine of the 3,826 TikTok posts analysed.

When the transition did feature, extreme weather was often part of the same story. Half of the TV and radio programmes linked the transition to extreme weather. 56% of online articles and five of the nine TikTok posts did the same.

But extreme weather was much more likely to provide the news hook than covering the transition itself. Heatwaves overwhelmingly dominated those connections, while drought and wildfires rarely led audiences towards a discussion of moving away from fossil fuels.

How often was the energy transition linked to extreme weather?

Of the 72 TV and radio programmes that mentioned the transition away from fossil fuels and extreme weather, 36, or 50%, linked the two topics. In total, 445 programmes were analysed during the period.

Online, 10 of the 18 articles mentioning the transition also mentioned extreme weather. The total number of online articles published during this period was not recorded.

On TikTok, five of the nine posts mentioning the transition linked it to extreme weather. This was against a total of 3,826 posts analysed during the period.

These figures include both stories driven by the transition away from fossil fuels and those primarily focused on extreme weather in which the transition also appeared.

Which extreme weather event was most likely to be linked, and was climate change mentioned?

Heatwaves overwhelmingly dominated the connection between extreme weather and the transition away from fossil fuels.

On TV and radio, 32 of the 36 programmes that covered both topics mentioned heatwaves. Wildfires featured in five, drought in four and flooding in one. Three programmes referred to extreme weather in general without specifying a type. Categories were not mutually exclusive, so a programme could mention more than one type of extreme weather.

Extreme weather was more likely to lead the story

Simply appearing in the same piece of coverage does not necessarily mean the transition was central to the story.

On TV and radio, coverage in which extreme weather led, and the transition played a secondary role was nearly twice as common as the reverse.

Eighteen programmes were led by extreme weather. In 10, extreme weather was the substantive story and the transition a substantive secondary part. In a further seven, the transition appeared only as a passing reference. In the one remaining programme, both topics were covered as substantive stories.

Overall, 50% of programmes covering both topics had extreme weather driving the story while the transition played a secondary role.

The transition led in 11 programmes. In six of these, extreme weather was also covered substantively and in four it appeared as a passing reference. The remaining programme is the same one in which both topics led.

One Channel 4 News package on 5 July gave both topics substantive treatment, linking the return of heatwaves and wildfires across Europe with climate breakdown and the political debate over net zero. It also explored the need for greater climate resilience, including adapting public services to more frequent heatwaves.

A similar pattern appeared online. Most articles linking the two topics were primarily about the heatwave, with the transition secondary.

Only one article, published on 29 July about Britain’s air conditioning debate, gave the transition in-depth treatment alongside extreme weather, contrasting decades of policy focus on cutting emissions with the growing need for adaptation measures such as heat-resilient housing and air conditioning.

On TikTok, four of the five posts linking the transition with extreme weather were primarily about the heatwave, with the transition mentioned in passing, often towards the end of the post.

Two posts gave the issue more substantive treatment, both through the debate about air conditioning. One was a Channel 4 News FactCheck explainer that explored ways to cool homes or power air conditioning without increasing emissions.

@c4news Is it time Britain got air conditioning? Our FactCheck team takes a look. #Weather #Heatwave #AirCon #UK #C4News ♬ original sound – Channel 4 News

Who told the transition story?

Most TV and radio coverage connecting extreme weather with the transition (27 of 36) was presented by general reporters or presenters rather than specialist climate and science teams.

Four programmes were from climate or science teams, three by regional desks and one by a politics reporter and one by a weather presenter.

Online, six of the 10 articles carried bylines from regional journalists, including three regional specialists. Two were written by climate or science journalists, while two had no identified byline.

On TikTok, one of the five posts came from a weather desk and two from general desks. Two could not be attributed to a specific desk. None came from a climate or science specialist.

What voices were featured in transition coverage?

Politicians were the most frequently featured external voices in TV and radio coverage connecting extreme weather with the transition, followed by commentators, journalists and climate scientists.

Online, climate scientists were quoted most often, followed by politicians and voices from education and social care. Campaigners and transport experts also featured.

The five TikTok posts provided too small a sample to identify a consistent pattern. Two contained no external voice. The other three included doctors, someone affected by heat-related burns, an academic economist, an energy industry executive and two unidentified contributors debating air conditioning.

What solutions were discussed?

On TV and radio, electric vehicles and heat pumps were the most frequently mentioned solutions, followed by home insulation, reducing car use and public transport.

Most coverage which featured solutions framed the transition as a systemic issue tied to policy frameworks like net zero, or wider changes to the energy system, such as electrification. Carbon capture and storage featured in one programme, while another discussed carbon taxes, credits and related financial mechanisms.

Online coverage followed a similar pattern. Heat pumps and electric vehicles were also the most commonly mentioned mitigation measures.

One article from BBC News published on 21 July, for example, covered efforts at Bristol Airport to reach net zero through new heat pumps, electric vehicles and more fuel-efficient aircraft while also including criticism from a local campaign group linking the summer’s heat to concerns about continued airport expansion.

On TikTok, solutions appeared only through the debate about air conditioning.

One was the previously mentioned Channel 4 News FactCheck explainer. The other was a Good Morning Britain discussion featuring a contributor arguing that air conditioning needed to be powered by renewable electricity and calling for opposition to new oil and gas fields such as Rosebank; another argued that this did little to help families needing to cool their homes immediately.

@goodmorningbritain Is it selfish to get air con in the heat wave? Air conditioner units are selling out as Brits struggle with the soaring temperatures, but with around 4% of total global greenhouse gas emissions attributed to air con, should we be using them when we know they’re heating the planet? #heatwave #warning #weather ♬ original sound – GoodMorningBritain

Around half of the TV and radio programmes and standalone online articles mentioning solutions included a systemic policy response such as net zero or electrification, usually alongside practical measures such as heat pumps or electric vehicles.

By contrast, in TikTok videos every mention of a solution was tied to the air conditioning debate, with no post raising net zero, electrification or another systemic policy response.

What did audiences learn?

This depends on which platform they get their news.

The transition appeared in 72 TV and radio programmes and 18 online articles during the period analysed, but in just nine of the 3,826 TikTok posts.

When extreme weather and the transition did appear together, heatwaves overwhelmingly provided the connection. Drought, wildfires and flooding rarely opened the same route into discussion of the transition and did not do so at all in the online articles or TikTok posts analysed.

Extreme weather was also more likely to lead the story. On TV and radio, the transition usually played a secondary role when the two appeared together. The same pattern was visible online and was stronger on TikTok, where four of the five posts linking the two were primarily heatwave stories.

Politicians were the most frequently featured external voices on TV and radio, while climate scientists were quoted most often online.

The clearest platform difference was in solutions. TV, radio and online coverage included systemic responses such as net zero and electrification alongside practical measures including heat pumps and electric vehicles. On TikTok, solutions appeared only through the debate about air conditioning, with no post raising a broader systemic policy response.

Air conditioning was the one theme that connected extreme weather with the transition across all three platforms.

What this suggests is that extreme weather created opportunities for newsrooms to introduce the transition away from fossil fuels, but those opportunities were not always taken.

Heatwaves affected much of the country, so unsurprisingly they were occasionally framed through questions about how homes could be cooled without increasing emissions. On the other hand, the impact of drought and wildfires was felt by fewer and coverage rarely led audiences towards the same discussion.

For audiences, the transition was therefore present around this summer’s extreme weather, but rarely at the centre of the story. On TikTok in particular, an audience could have followed thousands of posts from public service media organisations while encountering very little discussion of the move away from fossil fuels.

Methodology

Climate News Tracker used keyword searches to identify news coverage published between 19 June and 31 July 2026 relating to the energy transition.

For television and radio, coverage was identified using search terms for both the energy transition and extreme weather events (such as a heatwave, drought or wildfire), so that only items where both topics were already present were included in the review. For online news and TikTok, coverage was identified using energy transition search terms alone; each item was then reviewed to establish whether it also referenced an extreme weather event.

A news item was coded as covering the energy transition where it discussed moving away from coal, oil or natural gas toward lower- or zero-carbon energy sources, including related policies, targets, investment, infrastructure or technologies such as renewables, nuclear power or electrification.

All identified coverage was then assessed for whether it explicitly linked the energy transition to an extreme weather event, alongside characteristics including depth of coverage, whether climate change was mentioned, the editorial desk responsible, the sources featured and whether specific solutions were identified.

Television and radio coverage was drawn from BBC One, BBC Radio 4, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky News flagship programmes, each reviewed in full. Online coverage was collected from BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky News websites, with articles identified via NewsAPI or in-house search tools and manually reviewed against the inclusion criteria; live blogs and video articles were tracked separately. TikTok analysis covered captions, subtitles, views and upload dates from seven public service media accounts.

This analysis measures whether the transition was mentioned or discussed alongside extreme weather; it does not assess the accuracy or quality of individual references.