Where and who does heat hit hardest?
Summer has hit and with it the first major heatwave: the UK and France recorded some of their hottest May days ever on Monday and Tuesday, with London seeing a provisional all-time May record high of 35.1°C just as Paris hit highs of roughly 34°C. At the same time an intense and prolonged heatwave is raging in India, with temperatures in several cities crossing 45°C, highlighting issues such as poor urban planning which contributes to night-time temperatures remaining dangerously high – putting millions at risk. This week we look at how extreme and rising temperatures affect people around the world, what systemic factors lead to their exposure and what we can do to ensure that people are thermally safe.
“Vulnerability to extreme heat is not just about income and energy poverty. It’s about the intersection between climatic, infrastructural, and socio-institutional factors,” says CMCC researcher Giacomo Falchetta as he introduces the first multidimensional assessment of Systemic Cooling Poverty across 28 countries in the Global South, revealing how vulnerability to extreme heat is driven not only by climate but also factors such as infrastructure, inequality, health and work conditions.