Cooling the Climate Crisis Turning the Global Cooling Pledge into Urban Impact

With the global temperature now 1.2 degrees Celsius warmer on average than during the preindustrial era, the world is seeing more intense heatwaves. At 1.5°C of warming, hundreds of millions of people could face one week per year of deadly humid heat that would not survive without access to cooling.

City infrastructure – like roads and buildings – absorb heat and then release it back into the city, meaning the highest temperatures during heatwaves often occur in urban areas. From Europe to Asia, the United States and Africa, this has negative consequences for cities as temperatures reached record highs last year. Nowhere is the implementation of comprehensive strategies and the adoption of ecosystems-based adaptation more important than in our cities, whose streets, buildings, industry, and vehicles could cause them to warm by a catastrophic 4°C by the end of the century, putting the poorest city residents at higher risk from extreme heat.

Against this backdrop, at COP28, the COP Presidency, supported by UN Environment Programme and the Cool Coalition, launched the Global Cooling Pledge, now backed by 70 countries and over 60 non-state actors. It is the first global collective action to reduce the cooling sector’s greenhouse gas emissions by 78 billion tons CO2e by 2050, thus aligning efforts with the Kigali Amendment, Paris Agreement, and SDGs. The Pledge recognizes that the cooling challenge requires action from non-state actors and the private sector to support the Pledge.

Cities, in particular, play a pivotal role in bringing solutions to scale and advancing sustainable cooling, and their active participation is essential in the global effort to mitigate the effects of rising temperatures and heat waves caused by climate change which pose significant risks to urban communities. Recognizing this, the Global Cooling Pledge includes specific commitments for subnational actors to support national governments in achieving the Pledge’s targets.

This event will delve further into the sub-national commitments of the Global Cooling Pledge. The event will include opening remarks (5 minutes), special remark (5 minutes), followed by a fire-side chat between two city representatives to showcase best practices adopted around the world to prepare for 2024 heat waves and to use ecosystems-based adaptation solutions for cities to adapt to extreme heat (10 mins). A panel discussion (50 mins) will follow, featuring local and national government representatives who will share their experiences and recommendations on how to address sustainable cooling and thermal comfort in urban areas to adopt energy-efficient, resilient, and affordable cooling solutions. This will be followed by a 10-minute Q&A with the audience and 10-minute wrap up and closing to mobilize subnational commitments on the Global Cooling Pledge. This event will be moderated by Eleni (Lenio) Myrivili, UN Chief Heat Officer, UN-Habitat.