I only had to wear PPE for a couple of hours one morning last week, and not even on the hottest day, to appreciate what hellish punishment it must have been to wear PPE all day. And I was at Bacton, with a gentle sea breeze too, so it’s time to talk about climate change and weather.

I don’t want to fall into the trap of the “weather v climate change” debate. As far as I am concerned, the science is clear. I want to look to the future and consider what we do about the challenges posed by the increased frequency and severity of the weather patterns we experienced over the past few days.

The simplistic, knee-jerk response from some is to urge the speeding up of climate mitigation here in the UK with more heat pumps, more EVs, and an end to using gas and oil. If our emissions controlled the weather we experience, then the argument would have some merit. But even if we achieved net zero overnight, 99 per cent of global emissions would still be impacting the climate and our weather extremes.

But the country has experienced a heatwave; it will have had many adverse impacts, including deaths from heat. So, adaptation to climate change must be our focus. Our public services have suffered; schools and hospitals need investment to cope with future weather extremes. Our homes need to adapt too.

I despair when some climate activists oppose air conditioning because it uses energy; it is the price we must pay for global failure to address carbon emissions. Our infrastructure needs to be more resilient to weather extremes. Yes, it will cost billions, but frankly we have no choice. It might mean slowing down our mitigation efforts and diverting investment into adaptation, but I suspect voters would prefer this to being coerced into spending huge sums on heat pumps and EVs and still struggling to cope with extreme weather.

Yes, it might be a tad ironic to divert spending away from carbon emission reductions and towards adaptation. But equally, while the carbon emissions from China’s industrial boom are fuelling climate change, China also gets to sell shedloads more air-conditioning units as we struggle to combat the heat.