‘Era of global boiling’: Who are chief heat officers and can they tackle extreme temperatures?

The “era of global boiling has arrived”, the United Nations chief António Guterres said. Yes, it’s hot, very hot. Not in a country or two but across the world. Scientists have confirmed that July is on track to become the hottest month on record – the hottest in 120,000 years.

From America to Europe and Asia to Africa, countries are battling extremely high temperatures . “Humanity is in the hot seat,” Guterres told a press conference on Thursday. “For vast parts of North America, Asia, Africa and Europe, it is a cruel summer. For the entire planet, it is a disaster. And for scientists, it is unequivocal – humans are to blame.”

Climate change and its impact are horrifying. And mankind has to find one way or another to deal with it. On the frontline of the climate crisis are chief heat officers. It’s a fairly new phenomenon and the United States reportedly has only three of them.

We take a look at what these officers do and the role they play in tackling one of the biggest challenges faced by man.

Also read: The Deadly Summer of 2023: Why long heatwaves are here to stay

What is a chief heat officer?

As we are all witnessing, cities are heating up. Some have decided to proactively tackle global warming and have appointed chief heat officers (CHOs).

A chief heat officer is hired to address rising temperatures driven by climate change. Their purpose is to raise awareness of extreme heat risks to protect the most vulnerable citizens within their city, according to World Economic Forum (WEF).

The idea of CHOs is the brainchild of the US-based Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center (Arsht-Rock) and the Extreme Heat Resilience Alliance strategy to provide a billion people with climate resilience solutions by 2030.

Also read: Extreme temperatures, torrent of rain: How Asia is facing the worst of climate crisis

What is the role of a chief heat officer?

These climate warriors plan and coordinate short and long-term responses to heatwaves. They are tasked with finding ways to cool urban environments. Their core responsibilities include raising awareness about extreme heat, identifying communities and neighbourhoods which are most vulnerable to extreme heat and implementing long-term heat risk-reduction and cooling projects. They are expected to implement measures such as tree-planting initiatives which make it easy for policymakers to implement emergency measures.

While the primary mission of a chief heat officer is related to climate change, the role also includes an important social component of reducing inequalities, the WEF says. Poor communities are the most vulnerable to extreme heat globally. People working outdoors are directly exposed to the sun.

Aditi Mukherji, director of climate change impacts at the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), was quoted by Al Jazeera as saying unless there is a “drastic” reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, heatwaves will continue – affecting the poorest in society the most.

Daniella Levine Cava, the mayor of Miami-Dade County in the US state of Flordia, told WEF, “We know extreme heat does not impact people equally – poorer communities and Black and Hispanic people bear the brunt of the public health impacts.”

Which countries have appointed heat officers?

In the last three years, eight local governments across the world have hired chief heat officers, who are working on addressing heat vulnerability.

In the United States, the cities of Miami, Los Angeles and Phoenix have hired heat officers. The first appointment was made in Miami in April 2021. Environment expert Jane Gilbert was the world’s first CHO, who previously worked as the chief resilient officer.

According to Cava, the purpose of the chief heat officer is to “expand, accelerate, and coordinate our efforts to protect people from heat and save lives”.

The city of Athens in Greece made the appointment in July 2021. And in October of that year, Sierra Leone became the first country in Africa to create the role. Eugénia Kargbo was made in charge of handling extreme heat in the capital Freetown. “Climate change is a global issue, just like COVID, so we need to sound the alarm and fight this collectively because sooner or later it will affect us all,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation back then.

Chile’s Santiago appointed a CHO last November, the first just appointment in South America. In Mexico, Monterrey has a dedicated official to deal with heat. Australia’s Melbourne has two chief heat officers and Bangladesh is the only country in Asia to have an official to tackle rising temperatures.

How are CHOs tackling the ongoing heatwaves?

In Arizona’s Pheonix temperatures have been soaring about 43C for close to a month. CHO David Hondula has been a busy man.

“I’ve been on the phone and sending more text messages than I can remember in my life. There’s this constant coordination and engagement and creativity and brainstorming,” he told the BBC.

On the weekends, he and his team are out in the city warning residents about the heat. He is also executing a tree plantation programme to shield locals from heatwaves in the future, the BBC reports. “There’s a lot of work to do ahead of us,” Hondula said.

Miami is likely to be the most affected city in America and by 2053, its seven hottest days would increase to 34 with temperatures nearing 40C. Jane Gilbert, the world’s first CHO, says that it is necessary to make sure people are aware of the risk period between May and the end of October. In Miami-Dade, they have installed 1,700 high-efficiency air conditioning units in public housing and are working to increase tree canopy coverage from 20 per cent of the county to 30 per cent, with an emphasis on low-income neighbourhoods.

What more can be done?

While cities the world over are facing a heatwave, only a handful have appointed chief heat officers. By 2050, more than 970 cities globally will experience average summertime highs of 35C, which is nearly triple the 354 cities that already do. The urban population exposed to this unbearable heat will increase by 800 per cent, reaching 1.6 billion by mid-century, according to a report Arsht-Rock.

In the US, cities like Boston and New York are managing their heat response through their emergency services departments or offices of resilience or sustainability, reports Axios.

In Europe, only Athens has a dedicated officer to tackle the crisis so far. And in Asian countries , where thousands die because of heat, only the Bangladesh capital has a CHO.

While India battles heatwaves every year, most of the effort is on the health front. “Any action to adapt to extreme temperatures needs to have a holistic and inclusive approach. Also, local solutions will matter more than a top-down led approach. Heat officers can lead these local adaptation strategies,” Aakash Mehrotra a novelist and consultant in international development working in South Asia and Africa, writes in The Quint.

“Just like Freetown in Sierra Leone is working on the heat mapping strategy, or Monterrey in Mexico on increasing green public spaces and parks, especially in low-income neighbourhoods to mitigate the heat-island effect, Indian cities will need city-wise approaches, and cross-learning among the cities,” he adds.

Talking about the need for CHOs, Kathy Baughman McLeod, director of the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, an NGO that helps finance and train these officials, says, “We think the position needs to be set aside from these other climate hazards. This is the No 1 health and death threat from climate — let’s focus on it…” With inputs from agencies