How Is the World Coping with Extreme Heat?

From hydration breaks during the FIFA World Cup to recent heat waves leaving Europe sweltering in an early summer, extreme heat is reshaping daily life.

Around the world, communities are adapting in real time to increasingly high temperatures. During Europe’s heat wave in June, schools closed across the UK, while Paris opened the Canal Saint-Martin for swimming to provide relief from the heat. Elsewhere, street vendors in Mathare, Kenya, have shifted their work to the cooler evenings. And outdoor workers in Hermosillo, Mexico, now start their day before sunrise to avoid the hottest hours.

Cutting climate-harming emissions to prevent further warming is essential. But as temperatures continue to rise, adapting to extreme heat is becoming increasingly urgent. WRI experts Carter Brandon, senior fellow, and Ruth Engel, extreme heat and environmental health data scientist at WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, unpack how people, cities and health systems are responding to rising temperatures, which solutions work and what more is needed to prepare for a hotter future.