Duke Experts Partner with U.N. to Advance Heat Solutions

A team of Duke University experts is collaborating with the United Nations to meet the growing challenges that communities around the world are facing from rising temperatures.

U.N. Call to Action

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday called for an urgent and concerted effort to address extreme heat. The 20-page document advocates for enhanced international cooperation to care for vulnerable populations, protect workers, boost heat resilience and limit global temperature rise to 1.5 °C.

In support of the call, the Duke Heat Policy Innovation Hub is partnering with two international organizations on a package of policy solutions designed to improve extreme heat governance and resilience worldwide. The partner organizations are the Centre of Excellence for Disaster and Climate Resilience (an initiative of the World Meteorological Organization [WMO] and U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction) and the Global Heat Health Information Network (an initiative of the WMO and World Health Organization).

“Extreme heat has become one of the most pressing issues of our time, with impacts that were considered largely hypothetical just a few years ago,” said Ashley Ward, director of the hub, a program of Duke’s Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability. “This partnership between our team at Duke and the United Nations is creating the foundation for efforts to build global heat resilience, protecting billions of people, natural environments and critical infrastructure worldwide.”

Guterres’ call to action relies on the expertise of 10 U.N. agencies to lay out the impacts of extreme heat. For example, more than 70 percent of the global workforce—2.4 billion people—are exposed to excessive heat, causing millions of injuries and tens of thousands of deaths each year. In addition to the effects on human health, the document outlines the economic, social and environmental tolls that heat takes.

The Heat Policy Innovation Hub has been working with the United Nations since March on a variety of measures in the package, including:

• Analyzing extreme heat hazards, including metrics, drivers and risk management practices
• Engaging with U.N. partner agencies to identify challenges and opportunities in prioritizing extreme heat within organizational missions
• Mapping the current heat governance ecosystem among U.N. agencies to highlight collaborations and gaps
• Creating case studies examining heat resilience strategies in six diverse countries
• Developing a framework to improve collaboration and governance among U.N. agencies on early warnings and actions for heat waves

In the fall, the hub will convene a workshop with representatives of U.N. agencies and member states to foster dialogue and catalyze collaboration around innovative heat solutions. Discussions at the workshop will inform a set of policy recommendations intended to enable more effective coordination, resource allocation and knowledge sharing among the partner agencies and member states.

The Nicholas Institute started the Heat Policy Innovation Hub in summer 2023 to bring together scientists and communities to develop and deploy innovative policy solutions that reduce the impacts of extreme heat on human health and well-being.

Over the last year, the hub has partnered with federal, state and local agencies in the United States to plan and prepare for extreme heat. Examples include the North Carolina Heat Action Plan Toolkit, recommendations for state emergency managers to adequately evaluate the threat of extreme heat and a comprehensive heat strategy for high school athletic associations.

Last month, the hub brought together more than 100 researchers, policymakers and corporate and community leaders from across the United States for the inaugural HeatWise Policy Partnership Summit. Through dynamic roundtable discussions and informal conversations, participants identified ways to make communities more resilient to heat events. The summit launched the HeatWise Policy Partnership, a “heat policy brain trust” for continued cross-sector collaboration.

The Heat Policy Innovation Hub’s work aligns with the goals of the Duke Climate Commitment, which unites the university’s education, research, operations and public service missions to address the climate crisis.

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See also:

• Global Heat Health Information Network: GHHIN supports UN Secretary-General’s call to urgent action on extreme heat