How India Can Keep Cool As Heatwaves Grow

As heatwaves grow more intense with rising temperatures and dense urban population, millions—especially in poorly ventilated informal settlements—face increasing thermal stress.

This is likely to result in health risks, lost productivity and higher healthcare costs – especially in vulnerable groups such as children, the elderly and outdoor workers.

According to the India Meteorological Department’s Annual Report, 2024 was the hottest ever recorded in India, surpassing the previous record set in 2016.

Over 37 cities recorded temperatures exceeding 45°C.

This aligns with the World Meteorological Organization’s designation of 2024 as the warmest year in the 175-year global observational record. Projections for 2025 indicate more heatwave days, highlighting thermal comfort as a public health and climate resilience priority.

Thermal comfort is tightly interwoven with multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by promoting health, resilience, productivity and energy efficiency.

With India’s urban population projected to reach 600 million by 2036, the challenge of ensuring a thermally comfortable living environment is urgent and central to safeguarding health and well-being of the occupants.

Integrating thermal comfort and urban planning

India has taken significant strides to integrate thermal comfort into its urban planning and infrastructure development strategies.

At both national and sub-national levels, several policies and programmes have been introduced to address rising temperatures and enhance resilience to extreme heat.

The India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP), developed by the Indian ministry of environment, forest and climate change, promotes sustainable and accessible cooling solutions, passive thermal comfort strategies such as enhanced natural ventilation, shading, cool roofs, low-heat-gain materials, while also providing a framework for their implementation.

With Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) 2.0 targeting 30 million homes, thermal comfort is now a necessity.

Building on this, the Indian ministry of housing and urban affairs is developing the Thermal Comfort Action Plan 2050 and related standards to guide affordable housing design. In 2024, it launched the PRiTHVi initiative (Passive-design Response in Thermal comfort with Viable solutions), offering practical passive design solutions such as site and space planning, optimized wall and roof design, strategic window placement, natural ventilation, shading techniques, and cool roofs to improve comfort and energy efficiency in both single and multi family affordable housing.

At the state and municipal levels, Heat Action Plans (HAPs) and Cool Roof Policies are gaining traction. Over 120 districts in 14 states of India are implementing HAPs that include warnings, advisories, cooling centers and outreach.

Cool Roof Policies in particular are being recognised as simple, cost-effective interventions to mitigate urban heat. Promoted by ICAP and the National Mission on Sustainable Habitat, they are cost-effective heat mitigation measures recommended for large new constructions. Telangana led by adopting a Cool Roof Policy in 2023, extending mandatory cool roof compliance to residential and smaller commercial buildings to the state’s building code.

Eco-Niwas Samhita (ENS) and Energy Conservation and Sustainability Building Code (ECSBC) are being adopted across states, setting thermal performance standards for residential and commercial buildings.

Additionally, India’s Model Building Bye-laws 2016 (MBBL) were updated in 2024 to incorporate ICAP recommendations, promoting cool roofs, reflective paints, light-colored tiles and China mosaic tiling for rooftops.

Finally, Green Building Rating systems support thermal comfort by incentivising practices such as passive cooling, insulation, and reflective materials.

Policy gaps 

Despite national-level efforts, mainstreaming thermal comfort in Indian cities is hindered by gaps in local action. Many states and Union Territories have yet to notify ENS and ECSBC or integrate them into municipal bye-laws. Even where regulations exist, enforcement is weak due to limited capacity and monitoring. Initiatives such as PRiTHVi are not yet effectively implemented at the state level.

Similarly, while Telangana has taken the lead in developing a cool roof policy, most other states have not yet institutionalized such measures.

Despite the ICAP recommending cool roof programmes, there is a lack of corresponding initiatives at the national, state, or city level to promote it. Most HAPs focus on short-term emergency responses, such as early warnings, heat-health advisories, and public cooling centers, while lacking long-term strategies like mandating cool roofs in building codes, integrating advanced low-embodied-energy, low-U-value materials in state Schedule of Rates, and mandating thermal comfort standards across state-level affordable housing schemes.

There is no central mechanism to track compliance or support municipal enforcement of thermal comfort-related codes, standards, or action plans.

Opportunities for action

India now has a unique opportunity to embed thermal comfort as a foundational principle of urban development.

As a member of the Smart Surfaces Coalition, TERI is working with the city of Bhopal—the first in South Asia to pursue a citywide smart surface strategy—to demonstrate how evidence-based research, combined with granular city-scale data, can accelerate the adoption of smart and passive cooling solutions at scale. This includes interventions like reflective (cool) roofs and pavements, permeable surfaces, green roofs, solar photovoltaic roof panels, tree cover, and other treatments to reduce urban heat, boost energy efficiency, and build climate resilience.

It is also supporting the revision of building bye-laws for cantonment board civil areas to incorporate ICAP-recommended measures and energy codes, offering a replicable model for other jurisdictions.

To mainstream thermal comfort, it is imperative that states accelerate the adoption and enforcement of ENS and ECSBC codes. These codes should be adapted to suit different climate zones and integrated into model building bye-laws.

HAPs must expand their scope beyond emergency responses to include year-round preparedness and built-environment adaptations.

Local governments should also invest in training municipal officials, architects and masons, while raising awareness among residents in heat-prone zones to drive demand for thermally comfortable buildings.

A bold and coordinated step forward would be the launch of a National Mission on Thermal Comfort for All under the National Action Plan on Climate Change.

This mission should include a dedicated fund for innovation in affordable housing and infrastructure, a national data and knowledge-sharing platform, alignment of state and city-level policies with national climate goals, and robust monitoring frameworks to track progress and impact.

Such a mission would embody climate justice by protecting those most vulnerable to extreme heat while reinforcing India’s leadership in equitable and sustainable urban development.

(Published under Creative Commons from 360info™. Read the original article here)