New Reports Mark UN Heat Action Anniversary, Support Smarter Global Response
New profile series maps action on Extreme Heat across the UN system
Extreme Heat Photo Contest: Help make heat visible
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Led by WMO and WHO, our dynamic network of policy makers, scientists, and practitioners are working together for a world where extreme heat is no barrier to lives and livelihoods.
The Second Africa Climate Summit 2025 (ACS2)
Sep 8, 2025 - Sep 10, 2025
Government of Ethiopia (GoE) & African Union (AU)
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Heat Risk Governance
Building effective and aligned multi-sectoral heat risk governance.
Indoor Heat Risks
Informing decision-making about indoor heat risks to human health
Documenting rural heat health disparities in the U.S.
Research in Focus
Australian heatwave mortality studies reveal climate change impacts and risk for cities
Research in Focus
Rise in heat deaths will substantially outweigh fewer cold deaths in Europe
Research in Focus
Stocktake Report: Heat action across United Nations Entities and International Organizations
2025
As global temperatures rise, extreme heat events are becoming more frequent and severe, posing significant risks to public health, infrastructure, and ecosystems worldwide. In response to this growing threat, the UN Secretary-General has issued a Call to Action on Extreme Heat, emphasizing the urgent need for coordinated global efforts. This report examines the current landscape of extreme heat management among United Nations entities and International Organizations (UN entities and IOs), identifying challenges, opportunities, and strategies for improving collaboration and governance to support this call to action.
An Assessment of Heat Action Plans: Global standards, good practices and partnerships
2025
As global temperatures continue to rise, the frequency and intensity of extreme heat events have escalated, posing significant risks to public health, infrastructure, and economies worldwide. While Heat Action Plans (HAPs) help to mitigate these impacts across national, regional, and local levels of governance, the lack of formal standards has led to variations in structure, purpose, and implementation among nations, regions, and municipalities. This variability often results in fragmented approaches, leading to critical gaps in funding, vulnerability assessments, and long-term resilience strategies. This synthesis report identifies best practices and persistent challenges to provide a structured framework for improving heat resilience based on evaluations of heat action plans from six countries—Australia, Canada, France, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Although twelve countries were initially considered, no publicly accessible national or subnational heat action plans were identified for Argentina, Bangladesh, Ecuador, Egypt, South Korea, and Senegal. It advocates for an adaptable governance framework, proposing that national guidance related to HAPs incorporate adaptable core elements, such as standardized heat risk definitions, clear agency roles, multi-sector coordination, and early warning systems. This foundational structure would enable cohesive planning across governance levels, equipping regions to develop context-specific HAPs that align with national resilience objectives. The report also highlights persistent issues identified in recent evaluations, including the scarcity of dedicated funding mechanisms, inconsistent long-term planning, and limited evaluation capacities, which weaken the overall efficacy of many HAPs. By spotlighting best practices from the evaluated plans, this report provides adaptable recommendations that can help countries establish a national framework supporting sub-national plan development, thereby enabling unified, scalable responses that address both immediate and future heat risks effectively.
Narrative Analysis: Case studies in heat resilience
2025
As climate change intensifies, extreme heat is emerging as a defining public health and development challenge across the globe. From heatwaves that overwhelm hospitals to chronic heat and urban heat islands that threaten vulnerable communities, the risks are growing, and so is the need for effective, coordinated responses. This narrative analysis highlights how twelve countries are confronting the realities of extreme heat through diverse governance models, partnerships, and innovations. The case studies span multiple regions and development contexts—Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Ecuador, Egypt, France, India, Senegal, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States—offering a cross-cutting view of what’s working, where gaps remain, and how national strategies are evolving in the face of escalating climate threats. Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, these profiles underscore the importance of adaptable, community-centred solutions, multi-sector collaboration, and strong institutional frameworks. By capturing lessons, successes, and persistent challenges, this analysis contributes to the growing global dialogue on how to govern for resilience in a warming world. This collection of case studies complements the broader efforts led by the Global Heat Health Information Network (GHHIN), UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in support of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Call to Action on Extreme Heat (2024).
Report of the Expert Consultation on Extreme Heat Risk Reduction: Towards a common global framework
2025
This report summarizes the proceedings of the 17–19 December 2024 Expert Consultation ‘Extreme Heat Risk Reduction Towards a common global framework‘, where over 60 experts from government, international organizations, philanthropy, academia, and civil society met at WMO Headquarters in Geneva. Co-hosted by the WHO-WMO Joint Office for Climate and Health, UNDRR, and GHHIN, the consultation aimed to develop a shared framework for extreme heat risk governance. Through panels, case studies, and working sessions, participants examined governance challenges, cross-sectoral coordination, and strategies to scale effective solutions. A key focus was shifting from short-term projects to sustainable, institutionalized governance. The consultation produced three main outcomes: Consensus on the need for a common governance framework; Definition of core components including data integration, capacity building, and policy alignment; Agreement on a roadmap leading to a framework launch at GP2025. Follow-up focus groups in spring 2025 will address remaining gaps, especially in sectors such as transport, energy, cooling, and environmental management.
Heat and Health: Action Statement from the Global Heat Health Information Network
2023
The Global Heat Health Information Network invites civil society, national governments and the international community to recognize the pressing urgency of addressing the health impacts of extreme heat and take bold, comprehensive, and coordinated actions to protect the well-being of our planet and its people.
2023 State of Climate Services: Health
2023
The interconnection between climate and health is undeniable. The climate, exacerbated by climate change, poses systematic and serious threats to human health. Climate change is documented to be impacting human health in many complex ways, including by leading to death, injury and illness from heat stress, the disruption of ecosystems and food systems, increases in food-, and water- and vector-borne diseases, and exposure to air pollution. The 2023 edition of the WMO State of Climate Services report focuses on health, which highlights the importance of climate services and information in protecting lives and livelihoods. While there are many good examples of how countries are successfully using climate information and services to detect, monitor, predict and manage climate-related health risks, there is huge potential for enhancing the impact of climate science and services for health. This report examines the current state of climate services for health, and presents a series of next steps, recommendations and case studies.
Summary for decision-makers to address gaps in climate science and services for health: 2023 State of Climate Services for Health Companion Document
2023
Fueled by climate change, more frequent extreme weather events and drastic environmental changes have a fundamental impact on human health and well-being. Tailored climate products and services can serve as a powerful part of the public health toolkit – enhancing our ability to detect, monitor, predict, and manage climate related health risks. Among other targets, the draft COP28 Declaration on Climate and Health calls for improving the ability of health systems to anticipate, and implement adaptation interventions against, climate-sensitive disease and health risks, including by bolstering climate-health information services, surveillance, early warning and response systems and a climate-ready health workforce. The 2023 WMO State of Climate Services for Health Report and the WHO-WMO Implementation Plan for Advancing Integrated Climate, Environment and Health Science and Services (2023-2033) outline the current gaps and barriers that must be urgently addressed to enhance the climate resiliency of the health sector. This summary outlines critical investment areas to address the gaps in Climate Science and Services for Health.
Considerations Regarding the Naming of Heatwaves
2022
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) plays a central role in the global coordination of the naming of extreme weather events. International experts in public health, public policy, and meteorology were consulted to assess the advantages and disadvantages of naming heatwaves being piloted in several countries. At SERCOM-2 (Oct 2022), WMO Members considered the practice of naming heatwaves, and expressed caution in adopting or promoting this practice. Members requested WMO to focus attention on strengthening heat-health warning systems, enhancing technical heat forecasting capabilities, and building capacity and partnerships to protect vulnerable communities from extreme heat. Key findings are summarized in this Technical Brief.
Final Report: From the G7 Health Communiqué to Action: Health and Climate – Heat Preparedness through Early Warning Systems
2022
The G7 event “From the G7 Health Communiqué to Action – Health and Climate: Heat Preparedness through Early Warning Systems” on 29 November 2022 recognized the importance of scaling up and enhancing Heat Health Warning Systems (HHWSs) and corresponding policy actions as key instruments for building resilience to climate variability and change in the health sector. This report captures the expert discussions during the event on the state of implementation, opportunities, challenges and advances in protecting communities from increasing extreme heat. Its conclusions allow the G7 countries to learn from each other and share important lessons with the broader global community. This report has been prepared by the WMO – WHO Joint Office for Climate and Health in close coordination with the German Federal Ministry of Health in the context of Germany’s G7 presidency and the health and climate event as part of the G7 Health Track. The report will serve as a contribution to the Global Heat Health Information Network (GHHIN). See also: Summary of G7 Heat Health Warning Systems and Action Plans – From the G7 Health Communiqué to Action: Health and Climate – Heat Preparedness through Early Warning Systems
Reporting on Heatwaves and the Health Impacts of Heat
2023
Media representations of heatwaves and climate change plays an important role in how the public thinks about, perceives, prepares for and acts on risks to their health, and how decision and policy makers address the problem. This brief was developed by the Global Heat Health Information Network and partners to provide journalists, editors and others working in the media and communications sector with guidance and perspectives on how extreme heat and heat health narratives and imagery can help save lives and drive action.
“Fan-First” Cooling – a low-carbon way to improve heat resilience in a changing climate
2023
Mitigating climate change is vital, but inevitable rising temperatures means that identifying sustainable cooling strategies is also important. Strategies at the individual scale that focus on cooling the person instead of the surrounding air can be effectively adopted, even in low-resource settings. This report presents the evidence behind “Fan-First” cooling as a low-carbon approach to improving heat resilience.
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