Practical actions: Before summer: for municipalities
What to do, who acts, what it takes to run, what could stop it, and what it only works with.
The decisions a city or district makes before the first heatwave decide what happens during it. The full cards, with who each protects, where it suits and its evidence, are on the live page.
What to do: Give heat a named lead office, and ring-fence a heat budget before the season starts.
Who acts: City and local governments, National governments, Development banks, donors and climate funds
Running and upkeep: A budget line each year, and staff time in the lead office.
What could stop it: A plan with no money and no single owner.
Works only if: The money is set aside before the heat; One office answers for the plan.
Evidence: source 1 below.
What to do: Set thresholds from local health records, and agree who decides, who acts, who pays and by when at each level.
Who acts: Weather and climate services, Health authorities, City and local governments
Running and upkeep: A yearly review of thresholds and who does what.
What could stop it: A warning with no named person to act on it.
Works only if: Every level has someone named to act; Warnings reach people without phones.
Evidence: source 1 below.
What to do: Find the neighbourhoods, workers and households most at risk, by walking the area with residents and their organisations.
Who acts: City and local governments, Community and civil society groups, Health authorities
Running and upkeep: A few weeks of fieldwork, updated every year or two.
What could stop it: Mapping from an office, without the people at risk.
Works only if: Residents and workers take part; The map changes what gets built.
Evidence: source 1 below.
What to do: Shade, water points, cooling spaces and roof coatings installed and tested by the end of winter.
Who acts: City and local governments, Water authorities, Community and civil society groups
Running and upkeep: Upkeep through the season, with named teams and a budget.
What could stop it: Procurement that starts when the heat does.
Works only if: Contracts are signed in winter; Every asset has someone to keep it working.
Evidence: source 2 below.
What to do: Check clinics are ready, and record heat illness and deaths every day of the season so the plan can respond.
Who acts: Health authorities, National governments
Running and upkeep: Daily reporting through the season, and training for doctors who certify deaths.
What could stop it: Deaths recorded as heart failure, so heat stays invisible.
Works only if: Doctors know how to record heat as a cause; Numbers are reviewed during the season.
Evidence: source 3 below.
What to do: Agree in advance what money is released, and for what, when the forecast crosses a threshold, before the heat peaks.
Who acts: Weather and climate services, Development banks, donors and climate funds, National governments
Running and upkeep: A fund topped up each year, and rules for releasing it.
What could stop it: Money that needs a declared disaster before it can move.
Works only if: Release rules are agreed in advance; Money reaches people within days.
Evidence: source 4 below.
Costs, where shown, are rough Indian planning ranges from the site’s cooling options, not quotes. Every action also needs a named owner and a running budget. Labels next to each title say what kind of evidence the card cites.
Sources
- Centre for Policy Research, 2023. cprindia.org/briefsreports/how-is-india-adapting-to-heatwaves-an-assessment-of-heat-action-plans-with-insights-for-transformative-climate-action
- The Hitavada, 11 May 2026. thehitavada.com//Encyc/2026/5/11/green-nets-at-city-squares-relief-measure-or-another-half-planned-half-planned-civic-experiment.html
- Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, reply in India’s Rajya Sabha, 6 August 2024. rsdebate.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/750681/1/PQ_265_06082024_U1693_p358_p362.pdf
- Global Commission on Adaptation, 2019. openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/7713887e-5c0c-5fce-9dd0-c18a8875736c