Create a funded municipal heat office with an annually updated heat action plan
#00183
Give one named municipal officer a budget line and operational control over heat: early-warning protocols, cooling and respite operations, and year-round mitigation, revised in an annual heat action plan. Funded offices cut deaths within years; unfunded plans and advisory posts d
India
FailedIndian state and city governments (over 100 heat action plans adopted across the country) · National
After Ahmedabad's 2013 Heat Action Plan showed peer-reviewed mortality benefits, over 100 Heat Action Plans (HAPs) proliferated across India by 2023, mostly copying the Ahmedabad document without its coalition, accounta…
Largely unfunded: heat is not a notified disaster in India, so no standard disaster funding channel applies to heat action plans
Freetown, Sierra Leone
OngoingFreetown City Council, Chief Heat Officer Eugenia Kargbo, under Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr · since 2021 · City
Freetown appointed Africa's first Chief Heat Officer, Eugenia Kargbo, in 2021, under Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr. The signature intervention is market shade covers in three markets, co-designed with the market women who wo…
Arsht-Rockefeller Chief Heat Officer program seeded the post; World Bank funded the first weather stations; donor funding is the binding constraint on scaling
Athens, Greece
OngoingCity of Athens, Chief Heat Officer (Eleni Myrivili 2021–2023, Elissavet Bargianni since 2023) · since 2021 · City
Athens appointed Europe's first Chief Heat Officer (Eleni Myrivili) in 2021 under the Arsht-Rockefeller Chief Heat Officer program; Elissavet Bargianni has held the post since 2023. The office introduced a health-based…
€120K · City of Athens budget (approximately 120,000 EUR per year); CHO post seeded under the Arsht-Rockefeller Chief Heat Officer program; physical project work leverages EU and philanthropic funding
Miami-Dade County, Chief Heat Officer Jane Gilbert · since 2021 · Region
In 2021 Miami-Dade County appointed the world's first Chief Heat Officer (Jane Gilbert), a post seeded by an Arsht-Rockefeller grant. The county declared an official Heat Season and published an Extreme Heat Action Plan…
Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center grant (seeded the Chief Heat Officer post) plus county funds · 1 source
Phoenix, Arizona, USA
SuccessCity of Phoenix, Office of Heat Response and Mitigation (founding director David Hondula) · since 2021 · City
In October 2021 Phoenix created the first publicly funded city heat office in the United States, the Office of Heat Response and Mitigation, under director David Hondula. The office publishes an annual heat response pla…
City of Phoenix funds, federal pandemic relief, opioid settlement funds; over 5 million USD assembled for 2026 operations