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Feng Zengkun, Lee Kuan New World City Prize

Summary

Rising temperatures across the world are casting a spotlight on the need to provide cooling in cities without worsening climate change or overburdening urban power grids. From district cooling systems in Singapore to white roofs in Ahmedabad and wind corridors in Guiyang, here’s a look at how some cities are implementing sustainable cooling projects to help their citizens to beat the heat.

In January 2018, parts of Australia became so hot that a stretch of the asphalt highway connecting Sydney and Melbourne melted and blackouts occurred because too many people switched on their air-conditioners. The scariest part of the heatwave, however, was that it could become the norm for the country in the near future. 

The past three years (2015 to 2017) have been the hottest on record globally, continuing a long-term warming trend, the World Meteorological Organisation said in a press release in January 2018. “Seventeen of the 18 warmest years on record have been during this century, and the degree of warming during the past three years has been exceptional,” said its Secretary-General Petteri Taalas. 

The rising mercury not only poses health risks in the form of heat exhaustion and heat strokes, but could also stress cities’ energy systems through the increased use of air-conditioning and disproportionately affect low-income families who cannot afford cooling technologies such as air-conditioners and refrigerators. 

To combat the projected rise in temperatures and occurrence of heatwaves, cities from New York City in the United States to Ahmedabad in India and Penrith in Australia have been developing heat action plans and implementing sustainable mitigation measures.

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