The silent killer: We need better risk governance to beat extreme heat | GP 2025

Extreme heat is no longer a seasonal inconvenience. It’s a systemic, cross-cutting threat, silently claiming lives, stressing economies, overwhelming cities, and widening inequalities. Yet it remains one of the least governed climate hazards.

At a high-level special event on extreme heat risk governance at the 2025 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction 2025, leaders from governments, international agencies, labour unions, academia, and the humanitarian sector came together to discuss how better governance can protect people’s lives from the “silent killer.”

“Extreme heat is the deadliest of all climate-related hazards,” said the World Meteorological Organization’s Director-General Celeste Saulo. “Yet it remains the least recognized and least managed.”

The crisis is heating up

Between 2000 and 2019, extreme heat caused an estimated 489,000 deaths annually. Heat takes its toll on global productivity, with International Labour Organisation estimates showing that in low- and middle-income economies in particular, the costs of injuries from excessive heat in the workplace can reach around 1.5 per cent of national GDP. And these risks are intensifying.

“This is not just a health crisis. It is an economic, labour and governance crisis,” said Dr. Saulo.

Despite this, as of 2023 only half of national meteorological services were issuing extreme heat warnings, and just 26 countries had dedicated heat-health early warning systems, WMO reported. 

Urbanisation is compounding the threat. Cities are warming up twice as fast as the global average, and 68% of the global population projected to live in urban centres by 2050.

From a reactive to a systemic approach

Much of the current global approach to heat is reactive: authorities issue warning during events, the respond to spikes, and measure the toll on communities and economies. But the impacts cascade across sectors – disrupting health, labour, agriculture, education, and energy – and this requires a systemic governance response.

“Heat is a systemic and pervasive risk,” said Dr. Pramod Kumar Mishra, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of India. “It cuts across public health, economic stability, and ecological resilience.”

The problem is not technical, but a lack of effective plans and policies to implement live-saving measures.

“Most of the extreme heat impact is predictable,” said IFRC Secretary General Jagan Chapagain. “If something is predictable, it’s preventable.”

Responses need be rapid, and taken at the level of local communities, using cross-sectoral partnerships.

Lessons in local leadership

Examples from several countries demonstrate how integrated governance can work:

• India first developed a local plan in Ahmedabad and now has 250+ cities and districts with operational heat action plans (HAPs).
• France, after a devastating heatwave in 2003, launched a multi-ministry effort to integrate adaptation and risk communication. Stakeholders were asked to imagine life under a +4°C scenario, and then develop local and national resilience strategies around this likely reality.
• The Philippines has developed a real-time “iHeatMap” platform and set up a cross-sectoral national task force to manage health, food, energy, and water impacts during heat events.

To guide cities in improving heat governance, the Making Cities Resilient 2030 initiative has developed a resource package on urban extreme heat risk management, which gives practical recommendations to help local and national governments create urban heat strategies.

“We are learning through lived experience,” said Senator Rosa Galvez of Canada – such as the 2021 heat dome in British Columbia, which lasted 27 days and resulted in 618 deaths. “But we must understand that we cannot adapt forever.”

Protecting the poorest

“Poor people can’t afford poor design—especially on a heating planet,” said the International Labour Organization’s Mia Seppo.

To address this imbalance, we need climate-informed finance that protects workers and promotes inclusive infrastructure investment.

“Financial strategies must align with just transition principles," Ms. Seppo said. “Climate risk must be integrated into investment decisions.”

“Any development project should have a heat risk element,” said Dr. Mishra. “Projects should include protection for both users and workers. Construction companies, for instance, must provide heat protection for labourers.”

Benoît Faraco, France’s Ambassador for Climate Negotiations for Decarbonized Energies and for the Prevention of Climate Risks, said that regulatory levers and standards can drive climate-resilient investment and avoid maladaptive pathways.

“Standards and regulation play an important role in prevention. You cannot build a hospital or school as if climate change was not happening; it's your job in the design to integrate mitigation and adaptation strategy,” he said. “If you let the market do things on heatwaves, people run to buy air conditioning systems, and during peak electricity demand this results in more fossil fuel use. It’s misadaptation.”

A global framework for local action

To facilitate coordinated approaches to extreme heat, UNDRR, WMO, WHO and the Global Heat Health Information Network are developing a Common Framework for Extreme Heat Risk Governance. This initiative aims to align actors across sectors, and to support national and subnational entities in integrating extreme heat into their DRR, climate, health, and urban strategies.

The Common Framework is designed to support the UN Secretary-General’s Call to Action on Extreme Heat, which outlines eight essential course corrections:

• Accelerate the transition to renewable energy sources.
• Enhance investments in sustainable, low-carbon energy systems to mitigate heat-related risks.
• Promote climate-resilient agricultural practices, such as drought-resistant crops and sustainable irrigation.
• Strengthen food supply chains to withstand heat-induced disruptions.
• Integrate urban planning with heat mitigation measures, including green infrastructure and shaded areas.
• Prioritize nature-based solutions that enhance resilience across sectors.
• Implement national heat action plans, including early warning systems.
• Establish heat-safe working conditions and policies.

These actions form the foundation of effective heat governance and call for integrated leadership across all sectors of society, at all levels of government.

“We must mainstream heat into both climate and disaster governance. We must embrace a multi-hazard approach,” Dr. Saula said. “We don’t need to reinvent the wheel. We need to align, scale and accelerate.”

Every extreme heat death is preventable

Closing the special event, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction Kamal Kishore said we should aim for zero heat-related deaths next heat season.

“We have the science. We know what to do. Now we must act – urgently, together, and at all levels,” he said.

We can start by making schools safer against extreme heat.

“One of my dreams is that in five years we will have 100,000 heat-resilient schools in all heat-prone areas,” Mr. Kishore said. “It’s not rocket science. We know what it takes to build heat-resilient schools in terms of built environment. We know how to incorporate green spaces and water bodies in schools. We know what kind of awareness children need to have to deal with heat waves.”

The Common Framework will provide tools to make schools, homes, and workplaces safer from the heat – but political will, coordinated governance, and community-centred approaches will determine whether the world beats the heat or succumbs to it.

We need to act for heat resilience today.