London and south-east England will see more deaths than the rest of the country because of hotter summers caused by global warming, a new study predicts.
In these areas, the odds of dying from cardiovascular or respiratory causes increase by at least ten per cent for every 1C (1.8F) rise in temperature.
But people in parts further north will see no increase in deaths at equivalent temperatures.
The study, in the journal Nature Climate Change, found that across England and Wales a summer that is 2C (3.6F) warmer than average would be expected to cause about 1,550 extra deaths.
Scientists at Imperial College London looked at temperature records and death rates from 2001-2010 to find out which areas experience the biggest effects from warm temperatures.
Prof Majid Ezzati said: ‘We might expect that people in areas that tend to be warmer would be more resilient, because they adapt by installing air conditioning, for example.
These results show that this isn’t the case. While climate change is a global phenomenon, vulnerability to its effects are highly local.’