The world’s cities are heating up at twice the global average rate due to rapid urbanization and the urban heat island effect. By 2100, many cities across the world could warm as much as 4°C if GHG emissions continue at high levels (UNEP & Cool Coalition, 2021). This excess heat will have devastating impacts on urban communities and infrastructure: extreme heat is already a leading cause of deaths by climate-driven hazards, with 356,000 deaths in 2019 alone (The Lancet, 2021).
For the 1.6 billion city residents who will face extreme heat by 2050, the health and economic impacts of extreme heat are crippling (WMO, UNEP, GCP, UK MET Office, IPCC & UNDRR, 2022). But we cannot just air condition ourselves out of this crisis: air conditioners and electric fans already account for nearly 20% of the total electricity used in buildings around the world today (IEA, 2018). Rising demand for space cooling is putting enormous strain on electricity systems in many countries, as well as driving up emissions.
To break this here is an urgent need to transition to more sustainable and equitable ways to cool down and ensure access to cooling where needed, without further warming the planet. Many of the available solutions to deliver on the cooling challenge can be implemented at the urban scale.
Under the Cool Coalition, UNEP has convened partners to co-develop tools and methodologies, and share best practice approaches across geographies. In 2021, UNEP launched the Sustainable Urban Cooling Handbook, which offers cities an accessible and holistic pathway and clear actions to keep cool using sustainable, low-carbon solutions.
UNEP is supporting countries and cities around the world to take action on extreme heat and develop sustainable cooling solutions, such as in Cambodia, India and Viet Nam.
