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Actions that break the vicious cycles of extreme heat

33 actions that cut a link in one or more vicious cycles of extreme heat: who can take each one, how soon it works, examples from Asia and practical guides.

Watch: Cut one link, ease many cycles · 0:22 · narrated, with captions
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Deep emission cuts

Every fraction of a degree avoided weakens every loop that runs through land, ice and forests at once. It also keeps more places within the limits to adaptation, where protecting people still works.

Cuts the link: Extreme heat → Nature and ecosystems. How soon it works: A decade or more. Who can act: National governments, International bodies, Development banks, donors and climate funds. How to track it: Emissions cut against the national target.

Could help interrupt: The dry-soil loop, The melting-ice loop, The wildfire loop

In practice: Across 2.7 million firms in 23 advanced economies, places used to heat coped better with days of 30–35 °C, but none had adapted to days above 40 °C. Each degree avoided keeps more days below that line.

Sources: OECD Economics Department, Working Paper No. 1828, 2024

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Clean, efficient cooling

Efficient appliances, clean power and low-warming refrigerants break the link between keeping cool and heating the planet.

Cuts the link: Cooling demand peaks → Emissions from cooling rise. How soon it works: 1–3 years. Who can act: National governments, Utilities and energy regulators, International bodies. How to track it: Share of new air conditioners meeting efficiency standards.

Could help interrupt: The global cooling loop

In practice: The Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol (2016) commits countries to phase down the most climate-warming refrigerants.

Sources: UNEP, reported by IISD: Kigali Amendment enters into force

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Keep water in the soil

Mulching, agroforestry, water harvesting and restoring degraded land help soils hold moisture and stay cooler.

Cuts the link: Drying soils → Extreme heat. How soon it works: 1–3 years. Who can act: Farmers’ organisations and agriculture agencies, Community and civil society groups, Development banks, donors and climate funds. How to track it: Hectares under soil-moisture practices.

Could help interrupt: The dry-soil loop

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Cut black carbon

Cleaner stoves, engines and brick kilns and an end to open burning cut black carbon, the soot that darkens snow and ice.

Cuts the link: Glacier and snow melt → Extreme heat. How soon it works: 1–3 years. Who can act: National governments, City and local governments. How to track it: Brick kilns and engines switched to cleaner technology.

Could help interrupt: The melting-ice loop

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Fire-smart landscapes

Early detection, community fire crews and land management that reduces fuel keep fires small and forests standing.

Cuts the link: Wildfires → Extreme heat. How soon it works: 1–3 years. Who can act: National governments, Community and civil society groups. How to track it: Area burned each fire season.

Could help interrupt: The wildfire loop

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Cool by design

Shading, ventilation, reflective roofs and efficient cooling cut the need for air conditioning, and the waste heat it dumps outside.

Cuts the link: Cooling demand peaks → Urban heat islands. How soon it works: A decade or more. Who can act: City and local governments, National governments. How to track it: New buildings meeting cooling standards.

Could help interrupt: The cooling trap

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Green, cool cities

Trees, water, cool roofs and cool pavements lower city temperatures and flatten peak demand.

Cuts the link: Urban heat islands → Cooling demand peaks. How soon it works: 1–3 years. Who can act: City and local governments, Community and civil society groups. How to track it: Tree canopy and shaded street length in hotspot wards.

Could help interrupt: The cooling trap

In practice: Cooling Singapore, a research programme across agencies, models where heat builds up street by street to test which mix of greenery, materials and layout cools each district best. Indian cities and states such as Ahmedabad and Telangana have run programmes that paint roofs to reflect sunlight. The Green Tamil Nadu Mission aims to raise the state’s forest and tree cover from 23.8% to 33% of its land by 2030–31.

Sources: Cooling Singapore: digital urban climate twin · Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, G.O. 215, 2023: the Green Tamil Nadu Mission target

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Keep city trees alive

Water, healthy soil, room for roots, heat-hardy species and a running budget for upkeep keep trees alive through hotter, drier summers, so their shade lasts. Looking after existing trees comes before planting new ones.

Cuts the link: Urban heat islands → City trees and parks die. How soon it works: 1–3 years. Who can act: City and local governments, Water authorities, Community and civil society groups. How to track it: Trees alive and growing three years after planting, against trees planted.

Could help interrupt: The dying-green loop

In practice: Berlin wrote a shared “good care” manual for its 12 districts, setting maintenance standards for street trees and green spaces, with drought-resistant species for replanting and a calendar of care. It followed losses such as a park where more than 500 of 870 new trees died within ten years despite watering.

Sources: Hansen et al., chapter 10 in Nature-Based Solutions for Cities, 2023

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Green without pushing people out

Secure tenure, rent safeguards and designing with residents let poorer neighbourhoods gain shade and parks without losing their homes. Small, local greening that is “just green enough” protects people better than flagship projects.

Cuts the link: Green space follows wealth → Greening pushes people out. How soon it works: 1–3 years. Who can act: City and local governments, National governments, Community and civil society groups. How to track it: Original residents still living in a greened neighbourhood five years on.

Could help interrupt: The green-displacement loop

In practice: In Bangkok, the Baan Mankong programme of the Community Organizations Development Institute gives canal-side communities subsidies and cheap loans to secure land and rebuild their homes. Along Khlong Lat Phrao, where flood works needed the canal banks, communities planned their own moves and rebuilding instead of being evicted.

Sources: Christian Science Monitor, 2019: when a city of canals floods, what happens to waterway shantytowns?

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Power that doesn’t need water

Solar and wind use very little water, and dry cooling protects thermal plants when rivers run low or warm.

Cuts the link: Water shortages → Power plants cut output. How soon it works: A decade or more. Who can act: Utilities and energy regulators, National governments. How to track it: Power capacity added that needs little or no water.

Could help interrupt: The energy–water loop

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Backup power for water

Solar pumps and backup supply keep water flowing when the grid fails.

Cuts the link: Power cuts and grid stress → Water shortages. How soon it works: 1–3 years. Who can act: Water authorities, Utilities and energy regulators. How to track it: Water pumping stations with backup power.

Could help interrupt: The energy–water loop

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Smart irrigation and groundwater rules

Drip irrigation, metering, aquifer recharge and fair pumping rules keep wells from running dry.

Cuts the link: Irrigation demand soars → Groundwater over-pumped. How soon it works: 1–3 years. Who can act: Farmers’ organisations and agriculture agencies, Water authorities. How to track it: Groundwater levels over time.

Could help interrupt: The groundwater loop

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Crop insurance and fair credit

Crop insurance that pays out after a heat-hit season, affordable credit and heat-tolerant seed stop one bad harvest becoming a debt trap.

Cuts the link: Failing harvests → Farmers fall into debt. How soon it works: 1–3 years. Who can act: Banks, insurers and financial regulators, Farmers’ organisations and agriculture agencies, Development banks, donors and climate funds. How to track it: Farmers covered by crop insurance or fair credit.

Could help interrupt: The farm-debt loop

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Heat action plans

Early warnings, public cooling spaces and outreach to the people most at risk prevent illness before it reaches hospital.

Cuts the link: Heatstroke and heat exhaustion → Health systems overwhelmed. How soon it works: Works this season. Who can act: City and local governments, Health authorities, Weather and climate services. How to track it: Hours from heat alert to a coordinated response.

Could help interrupt: The overwhelmed-clinic loop

In practice: Ahmedabad launched South Asia’s first city heat action plan in 2013; by June 2026, India had more than 250. In Nepal, Dhangadhi, which passes 40 °C every year, published a heat action plan in 2025 with the Nepal Red Cross Society. In Bangladesh, Practical Action is working with communities and local authorities in Khulna to build a heat early warning system that responds to them, where none existed before.

Sources: Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre: Dhangadhi Heat Action Plan 2025 · Practical Action: Living in a Hotter World

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Heat-ready health services

Cooling, backup power, surge plans and trained frontline workers keep clinics working through heatwaves.

Cuts the link: Health systems overwhelmed → Heatstroke and heat exhaustion. How soon it works: Works this season. Who can act: Health authorities, Development banks, donors and climate funds. How to track it: Health facilities with heat protocols, trained staff and cooling.

Could help interrupt: The overwhelmed-clinic loop

In practice: On Assam’s Brahmaputra river islands, boat clinics run by C-NES with the National Health Mission switched from diesel to solar power, so lights, fans and vaccine fridges keep working and emergencies can be seen after dark. Tamil Nadu’s heat strategy proposes a simple step for mothers: screen for heat risk in the check-ups of the state’s pregnancy scheme, which has run in various forms since 1987.

Sources: Thomson Reuters Foundation, via Eco-Business: Brahmaputra boat clinic goes solar · Tamil Nadu State Planning Commission, Beating the Heat: Tamil Nadu Heat Mitigation Strategy, 2024

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Heat-safe work

Rest, shade and water during dangerous heat, with paid breaks so that stopping work doesn’t mean losing pay.

Cuts the link: Informal workers can’t stop work → Heatstroke and heat exhaustion. How soon it works: Works this season. Who can act: National governments, Employers and businesses, Worker organisations and unions. How to track it: Worksites inspected and keeping rest-break rules.

Could help interrupt: The poverty–heat trap, The medical-debt trap

In practice: Singapore requires hourly wet-bulb globe temperature checks on outdoor worksites and at least 10 minutes’ shaded rest each hour for heavy work at 32 °C or above; in 2024 it inspected 250 workplaces and acted against 78. Several Gulf states ban outdoor work during the hottest midday hours in summer. Since 2023, Spain has required employers to cut or move working hours when the weather agency issues an orange or red heat alert and other measures can’t keep workers safe. Tamil Nadu’s heat strategy proposes building heat protection into the state’s existing occupational safety rules, rather than waiting for a new law.

Sources: Singapore Ministry of Manpower, 2023 · HRD Asia: 78 worksites found non-compliant · Garrigues on Spain’s 2023 decree · Tamil Nadu State Planning Commission, Beating the Heat: Tamil Nadu Heat Mitigation Strategy, 2024

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Income protection in heatwaves

Cash that pays out automatically when temperatures cross a danger threshold, so people can afford to stop. Triggers need careful design to limit basis risk: heat that hurts people without triggering a payout.

Cuts the link: Heatstroke and heat exhaustion → Lost work hours and wages. How soon it works: 1–3 years. Who can act: Banks, insurers and financial regulators, National governments, Worker organisations and unions. How to track it: Workers covered, and days from trigger to payout.

Could help interrupt: The poverty–heat trap, The displacement loop

In practice: Parametric heat insurance has been piloted with women informal workers in India.

Sources: ICMIF, 2024: IBISA launches a parametric heat-index product for women workers in India

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Social protection floors

Basic income security that keeps households above the line between one hot season and the next.

Cuts the link: Lost work hours and wages → Informal workers can’t stop work. How soon it works: 1–3 years. Who can act: National governments, Development banks, donors and climate funds. How to track it: Households reached by heat-season support.

Could help interrupt: The poverty–heat trap

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Free care for heat illness

Covering emergency treatment for heat illness stops one bad day from becoming years of debt.

Cuts the link: Heatstroke and heat exhaustion → Medical costs and debt. How soon it works: Works this season. Who can act: Health authorities, National governments. How to track it: Heat illness cases treated free of charge.

Could help interrupt: The medical-debt trap, The energy-poverty trap

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Affordable cooling for the poorest

Lifeline electricity tariffs, efficient fans and cool roofs put safe cooling within reach of every household.

Cuts the link: Can’t afford to keep cool → Heatstroke and heat exhaustion. How soon it works: 1–3 years. Who can act: Utilities and energy regulators, City and local governments, National governments. How to track it: Low-income homes with affordable cooling.

Could help interrupt: The energy-poverty trap

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Cool, affordable housing

Upgrading informal settlements with ventilation, shade and cool roofs, and planning homes for people who arrive.

Cuts the link: Forced migration → Homes that trap heat. How soon it works: A decade or more. Who can act: City and local governments, Development banks, donors and climate funds, Community and civil society groups. How to track it: Homes fitted with cool roofs or insulation.

Could help interrupt: The displacement loop

In practice: Telangana’s Cool Roof Policy 2023–2028, India’s first, makes cool roofs mandatory for many kinds of building and aims to cover about 300 km² of roofs. Tamil Nadu’s heat strategy proposes making a measure of how much heat walls and roofs let in, the residential envelope transmittance value (ReTV) from India’s residential energy code, a condition in tenders for redeveloping informal settlements.

Sources: NRDC: Telangana announces a groundbreaking cool roof policy · Tamil Nadu State Planning Commission, Beating the Heat: Tamil Nadu Heat Mitigation Strategy, 2024

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Keep children in school

Cash transfers, school meals and heat-ready classrooms and timetables keep children learning through hot seasons.

Cuts the link: Deepening inequality → Children pulled out of school. How soon it works: Works this season. Who can act: Schools and education authorities, National governments. How to track it: Attendance and drop-outs during the heat season.

Could help interrupt: The lost-schooling loop

In practice: When heat closes schools, children lose more than lessons: consultations for Tamil Nadu’s heat strategy found that long breaks cost children in schools serving marginalised groups their midday meals. India’s school meal scheme can keep serving meals through the summer holidays in areas declared drought-hit, as Odisha did in 27 districts in a year when a forecast heatwave also extended school closures. In the Philippines, heat helped drive the return to a June school start, keeping classes out of the hottest months, April and May.

Sources: Tamil Nadu State Planning Commission, Beating the Heat: Tamil Nadu Heat Mitigation Strategy, 2024 · The Quint: Odisha extends school holidays and keeps midday meals going · Inquirer: DepEd all set for June school opening in 2025

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Cool nights and support

Cooling centres open at night, shaded and ventilated homes, and mental-health support during the hot season.

Cuts the link: Sleepless hot nights → Mental health suffers. How soon it works: Works this season. Who can act: City and local governments, Health authorities, Community and civil society groups. How to track it: Night-time indoor temperatures in target homes.

Could help interrupt: The sleepless-nights loop

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Count every heat death

Real-time tracking of excess deaths during heatwaves, and death certificates that record heat, make the toll visible.

Cuts the link: Heat deaths → Heat deaths under-recorded. How soon it works: 1–3 years. Who can act: Health authorities, Weather and climate services, National governments. How to track it: Recorded heat deaths compared with excess deaths.

Could help interrupt: The invisible-deaths loop

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Cooling centres and check-ins

Public cooling spaces, water points and check-ins on older people living alone save lives in every heatwave.

Cuts the link: Heat protection underfunded → Heat deaths. How soon it works: Works this season. Who can act: City and local governments, Community and civil society groups, Health authorities. How to track it: Cooling centre visits, and check-ins on people living alone.

Could help interrupt: The invisible-deaths loop

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Dedicated heat budgets

Ring-fenced funding for heat action, set aside before the season, so protection doesn’t compete with the emergency.

Cuts the link: Public budgets strained → Heat protection underfunded. How soon it works: 1–3 years. Who can act: National governments, City and local governments, Development banks, donors and climate funds. How to track it: Heat budget set aside before the season starts.

Could help interrupt: The reactive-spending loop, The protection-gap loop

In practice: Since August 2026, India’s disaster response funds can pay for heatwave relief; preparing for heat is still paid for separately. In Nepal, Madhesh Province and five municipalities committed 5% of sectoral budgets to adaptation and disaster risk reduction, with support from Practical Action and Mercy Corps.

Sources: CEEW, Nepal in a Warming World, 2025

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Anticipatory action

Release money and act on the forecast, before the heatwave peaks, instead of paying for the emergency afterwards.

Cuts the link: Heat protection underfunded → Emergency services stretched. How soon it works: 1–3 years. Who can act: Weather and climate services, Development banks, donors and climate funds, National governments. How to track it: Money released before the heatwave peaks.

Could help interrupt: The reactive-spending loop

In practice: On 21 April 2024, with forecasts above 38 °C, the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society activated its heatwave early action protocol for Dhaka: warnings, drinking water, cooling stations and cash grants, with about CHF 500,000 from the IFRC to reach some 124,000 people. WHO and WMO estimate that bringing heat-health warning systems to the countries that lack them could prevent nearly 100,000 deaths a year.

Sources: Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, 2024

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Heat-smart lending

Lenders and regulators keep credit flowing through a heatwave: repayment holidays triggered by heat alerts, credit lines kept open, and loans for shade, cooling and cold storage, so a hot season does not become a debt spiral.

Cuts the link: Loan repayments slip → Borrowing costs rise. How soon it works: 1–3 years. Who can act: Banks, insurers and financial regulators, National governments, Development banks, donors and climate funds. How to track it: Borrowers given repayment holidays or extra credit during heatwaves, and loan arrears after the season.

Could help interrupt: The heat credit squeeze

In practice: India’s banks can already reschedule loans and pause repayments in areas hit by notified natural calamities, under a 2018 Reserve Bank of India direction. India added heatwaves to its notified calamities in 2026; whether that relief now reaches heat-hit borrowers is worth asking your bank. Southeast Asia has the same machinery for floods and storms. In the Philippines, banks in areas under a state of calamity can give borrowers up to six months’ grace with no penalties. Indonesia’s regulator let banks restructure Rp12.58 trillion of loans for 237,083 borrowers after the 2025 Sumatra floods, and Vietnam let lenders reschedule debts hit by Typhoon Yagi until 2027. None of these rules yet names heat as a trigger.

Sources: Philstar: BSP expands calamity relief for banks and borrowers, 2025 · Bisnis.com: OJK loan restructuring for Sumatra disaster victims reaches Rp12.58 trillion, 2026 · Viet Nam News: banks allowed to extend debt repayment for Typhoon Yagi-affected customers to 2027

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Shared risk pools

Public–private insurance and regional risk pools keep cover available and spread losses beyond any one budget.

Cuts the link: Insurance losses and retreat → Public budgets strained. How soon it works: 1–3 years. Who can act: Banks, insurers and financial regulators, National governments, Development banks, donors and climate funds. How to track it: Share of heat losses covered by pooled risk.

Could help interrupt: The protection-gap loop

In practice: Regional risk pools such as the African Risk Capacity and the Caribbean’s CCRIF share disaster risk across countries.

Sources: World Bank: sovereign catastrophe risk pools, 15 years on

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Heat-safe pregnancy and newborn care

Heat advice and checks in antenatal care, lighter work and rest for pregnant workers, cool labour wards and newborn units, and visits to new mothers in a heatwave.

Cuts the link: Risks in pregnancy → Babies and young children at risk. How soon it works: Works this season. Who can act: Health authorities, Employers and businesses, Community and civil society groups. How to track it: Antenatal and newborn services with heat advice, cool rooms and heat protocols.

In practice: Tamil Nadu’s heat strategy proposes screening for heat risk in the check-ups of the state’s pregnancy scheme.

Sources: Tamil Nadu Heat Mitigation Strategy, 2024

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Mental health in heat plans

Heat plans that include mental health: support that reaches farm households after crop losses, services that stay open through heatwaves, and warnings that reach people in mental health care.

Cuts the link: Mental health suffers → Suicides rise. How soon it works: 1–3 years. Who can act: Health authorities, National governments, Community and civil society groups. How to track it: Heat plans that name mental health, with services and support lines that stay open in heatwaves.

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Violence prevention in heat planning

Helplines, shelters and women’s groups included in heat plans and kept open in heatwaves, income support in hot seasons, and health workers trained to recognise violence on their visits.

Cuts the link: Lost work hours and wages → Violence against women rises. How soon it works: 1–3 years. Who can act: Community and civil society groups, National governments, Health authorities. How to track it: Heat plans that include helplines, shelters and women’s groups.

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Safe water and rehydration for young children

Safe drinking water, handwashing and oral rehydration salts in place before the hot months, carried to families by clinics and community health workers.

Cuts the link: Sanitation and hygiene fail → Diarrhoea in young children. How soon it works: Works this season. Who can act: Water authorities, Health authorities, Community and civil society groups. How to track it: Clean water, handwashing and oral rehydration ready before the hot months.

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Actions that break the vicious cycles of extreme heat

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33 actions that cut a link in one or more vicious cycles of extreme heat: who can take each one, how soon it works, examples from Asia and practical guides.

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