The year 2024 was the hottest on record, continuing a decade-long trend of unprecedented global temperatures. All of the past ten years now rank among the hottest ever recorded. January 2025 has already set a new record as the warmest January, signaling another year of escalating global temperatures.
The planet is surpassing past heat records at an alarming rate. In India, for instance, the heatwave season has arrived unusually early, with temperatures along the west coast soaring in February. Scientists attribute this early onset to an exceptionally dry winter, among other factors. This period of extreme heat extends beyond typical seasonal patterns and geographical expectations, underscoring the growing severity of climate change.
Climate Change Driving Extreme Heat
The World Weather Attribution (2024) reports that climate change contributed to at least 3,700 deaths and the displacement of millions across 26 extreme weather events in 2024. Scientists also found that climate change added 41 extra days of “dangerous” heat last year.
Record-breaking global temperatures in 2024 led to extreme rainfall events, triggering catastrophic flooding. Of the 16 floods studied, 15 were directly linked to climate change-driven rainfall, demonstrating how rising temperatures are amplifying weather disasters worldwide.
Health Risks Amplified
Extreme heat poses severe health risks, as highlighted in a comprehensive analysis of temperature-attributable mortality worldwide. A study analyzing data from 65 million deaths across nine countries found that extreme temperatures—both heat and cold—are linked to 17 causes of death, primarily cardiorespiratory and metabolic diseases. In 2019 alone, an estimated 1.7 million deaths worldwide were associated with extreme temperatures, with 356,000 specifically attributed to heat.
Research published in The Lancet’s Heat and Health Series (2021) underscores how heat directly impacts the human body, leading to dehydration, cardiovascular strain, and other health complications. The findings reinforce the role of temperature as a major amplifier of health risks, particularly in vulnerable populations and high-exposure settings.
Limits of Adaptation
Efforts to adapt to extreme heat, particularly in the context of public health, have led to the development of Heat Action Plans (HAPs). These plans incorporate early warning systems, community engagement, targeted outreach to at-risk populations, and cross-sectoral collaboration. While HAPs have shown promising results in mitigating heat-related health risks at the local level, rapidly rising temperatures demand more effective and science-driven interventions.
To enhance their impact, HAPs must integrate the latest scientific findings, establish localized temperature and humidity thresholds for high-risk urban areas, and utilize risk analytics to better identify and protect the most vulnerable populations. Additionally, shifting from a short-term, reactive approach to long-term, transformative strategies is essential. Strengthening mitigation and adaptation measures while addressing loss and damage caused by extreme heat will be crucial in protecting public health in an era of intensifying climate change.
Need for a Paradigm Shift
Current approaches to managing extreme heat primarily focus on emergency response, but a paradigm shift is urgently needed. A broader strategy must be adopted—one that integrates non-economic loss and damage (NELD) factors into heat management frameworks.
Understanding the full spectrum of NELD associated with extreme heat is crucial, particularly its impact on vulnerable groups such as children, adolescents, youth, and the elderly. Extreme heat affects not only physical and mental health but also critical aspects of human development, including growth, learning, well-being, and long-term potential. To address the unavoidable large-scale health impacts of extreme heat, a new framework is needed—one that anticipates risks, absorbs shocks, and strategizes long-term solutions.
Translational Science: A Way Forward
Accurately quantifying heat-related health risks is essential for reducing morbidity and mortality caused by heat stress. The Heat Index, developed in 1979, was designed to convey human discomfort under typical temperature and humidity conditions in the United States. However, it was built on simplified assumptions that do not adequately reflect the extreme temperatures and humidities of today’s intensified heatwaves.
An Extended Heat Index (EHI), capable of capturing heat stress even under extreme conditions, is needed to improve risk assessment and preparedness. Scaling the EHI across diverse climate and socio-economic vulnerability contexts will provide a more accurate measure of heat exposure.
Additionally, developing NELD accounting tools that integrate climate, disaster and health nexus metrics is essential. By focusing on health outcomes in specific vulnerability contexts, these tools can help shape targeted adaptation strategies.
Translational science—the process of applying scientific discoveries to real-world health challenges—plays a crucial role in addressing NELD associated with extreme heat. It offers an opportunity to enhance planning, assessment, and technical support, strengthening global coordination efforts. In this regard, the Centre for Disaster Management at Kasturba Medical College, Manipal/India is taking forward the advances in translational science for example including an easily executable Heat Stroke Score System HISS and application of the same in the patient population. The Warsaw International Mechanism (WIM) on Loss and Damage provides a critical platform to expand these initiatives, ensuring that both immediate and long-term health impacts of extreme heat are systematically addressed.
Originally published as a guest opinion by Green Network Asia.