United Nations Secretary-General's call to action on extreme heat

In response to the rapid rise in the scale, intensity, frequency and duration of extreme heat, UN Secretary-General António Guterres on 25 July 2024 called for an urgent and concerted effort to enhance international cooperation to address extreme heat in four critical areas:

• Caring for the vulnerable;
• Protecting workers;
• Boosting resilience of economies and societies using data and science;
• Limiting temperature rise to 1.5°C by phasing out fossil fuels and scaling up investment in renewable energy.

Crippling heat is everywhere. Billions of people around the world are wilting under increasingly severe heatwaves driven largely by a fossil-fuel charged, human-induced climate crisis. More than 70 per cent of the global workforce – 2.4 billion people – are now at high risk of extreme heat. The most vulnerable communities are hit hardest.