National Societies gear up for Heat Action Day 2025
By the Climate Centre
Extreme heat is a persistent and growing threat around the world as global warming increases the frequency, intensity and duration of heatwaves, IFRC Secretary General Jagan Chapagain has said.
Speaking in a foreword to a new IFRC report being issued this weekend for Heat Action Day 2025 on Monday 2 June, he added that this “has devastating consequences, ranging from physical and mental health impacts to disruptions to critical systems, and even heightened conflict.“
Heat was still poorly recognized in policy and in planning for adaptation despite its impacts on health, social systems, and its role in “cascading failures in water, food, and electrical and transport infrastructure“.
Red Cross and Red Crescent volunteers saw the effects of heat first-hand: from newborns and elderly people appearing more often in healthcare settings to changes in community life as people use public spaces less and adjust their lives around the hottest times of the day.
In a separate report today, by Climate Central and World Weather Attribution, also timed to coincide with the run-up to 2 June, scientists have found that in the year to May, about half the world’s entire population experienced at least 30 additional days of extreme heat.
“All 67 major heat events in the past year were made more likely by climate change,“ the WWA team say.
“We need to quickly scale up our response to heat through better early-warning systems, heat-action plans, and long-term planning for heat in urban areas to meet the rising challenge,“ said Roop Singh today, Climate Centre Head of Urban and Attribution.
‘All 67 major heat events in the past year
were made more likely by climate change‘
National Societies and other stakeholders and municipalities around the world are this weekend launching a wide range of activities to mark Heat Action Day (alphabetically):
*The North Texas chapter of the American Red Cross is rolling out new artwork and themed T-shirts and laying on a press conference at Dallas city hall.
*Bahrain Red Crescent volunteers are visiting outdoor workers to raise awareness about the risks of heat stress and sunstroke (photo).
*The Bangladesh Red Crescent is organizing awareness sessions for school students about heat risks and safety, including rehydration salts for pedestrians during extreme heat.
*The Burkina Faso Red Cross has been engaged in an awareness campaign since April through home and workplace visits.
*A digital awareness effort by the Egyptian Red Crescent is called HOT days, SAFE ways.
*The West Bengal branch of the Indian Red Cross is distributing drinking water and education material to pedestrians, police and drivers working outdoors.
*The Turkish Red Crescent seven-day action series comprises awareness and follow-up, sun protection, domestic temperature management, advice on activity (nothing strenuous!) and clothing, nutrition and hydration, checking on vulnerable people and, lastly, animals.
Two relevant workshops this week have emphasized the message that heat impacts are growing, and are likely to continue to grow, in a warming world; they come as the latest decadal climate forecast from the WMO, issued yesterday, put at 70 per cent the chance that average warming for the next five years will be more than 1.5°C. (If maintained over 20 years, this would constitute a definitive breach of the 2015 Paris Agreement.)
On Tuesday the Climate Centre’s Director of Programmes, Julie Arrighi, who is also lead author for an IPCC special report on climate change and cities, spoke at an event in Geneva and online organized with the Global Cities Hub centred on ways to increase resilience to urban heat.
Climate Centre Urban Adviser Karina Izquierdo yesterday joined other experts for an online briefing, organized with Climate Central, on “[w]here and how climate change fuelled dangerous heat in the past year [and] why heat-related health risks are still overlooked“.
She told the meeting: “Extreme heat remains under-recognised in policy and planning. Systematically tracking and reporting heatwaves is a vital step toward making this silent risk visible.
“Without this information, it’s difficult to fully comprehend the impacts of extreme heat, and this limits our ability to design effective adaptation strategies.“
‘Cool bus stands‘
Cities are on the front lines of managing the impact of heatwaves, with more and more work underway on action plans to protect residents from heat exhaustion, according to the Geneva-based Global Cities Hub.
*As part of the build-up to Heat Action Day this year, Geneva itself is setting up air-conditioned spaces for the public as well as “cool bus stands“ and other cooling centres in museums, libraries, shopping centres and retirement homes.
*The Indian city of Churu, which saw temperatures in excess of 50°C in 2024, is launching its own action plan that “blends local wisdom with data, charts short to long-term interventions, and strengthens coordination between local, district, and state authorities.“ For a while it was the hottest place in India last year.
*Pakistan‘s Community Development Foundation NGO has started working on heatwaves, training volunteers and health workers and setting up what it‘s calling heat stabilization centres.
*The Resilient Cities Network is putting together a social media campaign inspired by its programmes in North America, Malacca in Malaysia, and Manchester, UK.
*EU mayors‘ Cities Refresh campaign that started in April is a call to action for European cities to redesign urban spaces and communities for a cooler and more resilient future.
*The Asian Development Bank is sharing knowledge resources from a technical assistance project on strengthening women‘s resilience to heat stress in Asia and the Pacific.
*An ICLEI project called Climate Resilience for Societies, in cooperation with Izmir, Türkiye and the Z Zurich Foundation, is working with disadvantaged communities to increase resilience against floods and heatwaves, including (for Heat Action Day) lighting up the city clocktower orange.
Bahrain Red Crescent are visiting outdoor workers to raise awareness about the risks of heat stress and sunstroke. (Photo: BRC)