Nature Sustainability

Mazzone, A., De Cian, E., Falchetta, G. et al. Understanding systemic cooling poverty. Nat Sustain (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01221-6

Temperature records are being broken across the world, leading to incalculable suffering. The poorest and most disadvantaged people, who contributed the least to global warming, are the ones bearing the most severe consequences of extreme heat because of their limited adaptive capacity. Understanding the needs of the most disadvantaged is imperative to develop fair and adequate strategies to adapt to extreme heat and keep cool. This Perspective discusses how to understand systemic cooling poverty with the aim of informing policy and practice to support vulnerable people.