Who bears the heat of climate change? Helping communities deal with rising temperatures

The Straits Times: Who bears the heat of climate change? Helping communities deal with rising temperatures

Ms Subasheny R. Devan Nair, 43, heads down to her void deck three to four times a day to seek reprieve from the still air of her home.

She lives in a one-room rental flat in Bukit Merah with her grandmother and several cats. She has no air-conditioning at home, and rarely opens the windows for her cats’ safety.

“I rely on plenty of ice water, and a wet towel when sleeping. I’m asthmatic, and attacks are triggered during the hot weather,” added Ms Subasheny, a former security guard who is currently unemployed.

As Singapore and the broader Asia region enter the warmest months of the year, which are typically from April to June, Ms Subasheny could be making more frequent trips to her void deck to enjoy the outdoor breeze.

Fuelled by climate change, temperatures are rising globally.

The year 2024 has been declared the hottest year on record, and temperatures are expected to continue rising as planet-warming emissions go up.

But heat does not impact all segments of society in the same way, especially for those who have no easy access to air-conditioning.

Some, like Ms Subasheny, have health conditions that are triggered by rising temperatures.

In other parts of the region, outdoor workers, women and people living in informal settlements will also be susceptible to indirect impacts of heat that make their experience in a warmer world worse.

For example, heat stress affects outdoor and factory workers’ productivity, and can lead to workplace accidents.

Now, a growing number of organisations – including research groups, humanitarian organisations and multilateral banks – are trying to understand how heat is experienced by various segments of society.

New solutions are also being rolled out, to help vulnerable members of the community keep their cool.

Monitoring the heat experience
In February, two researchers from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) visited Ms Subasheny’s home, armed with a handheld weather station – which measures things like temperature and wind speed – and a 360-degree camera.

Their aim is to find out how her household is impacted by the heat, and how the occupants cope with the discomfort.

While local studies have been done on the heat risk of construction workers and soldiers, this is the first time researchers are heading into homes to find out if residents and their living spaces are resilient to hotter weather and humidity.

For smaller units, placing a fan near the window could optimise air circulation, and keeping heat sources away from the living room area could help, SUTD’s Assistant Professor Samuel Chng said.

Prof Chng, the study’s principal investigator, said of the research: “People spend at least 10 hours a day in their own homes. So how do we make it as comfortable as possible? The end goal is to help residents adapt well to rising heat.”

Ms Subasheny’s flat is one of more than 300 HDB units islandwide that the researchers have visited since September 2024. The aim is to survey 500 HDB flats in total under the research project.

The eventual goal is to come up with a menu of low-cost, yet effective, cooling options – beyond air-conditioning – that are accessible to all.

This could be as simple as switching from polyester bedsheets to cotton ones, which offer more cooling, said Prof Chng. Cotton bedsheets feel cooler than polyester sheets mainly due to differences in breathability, moisture absorption and heat retention.

He co-leads the four-year study, which started in 2023 and also involves the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Singapore-ETH Centre, spanning two fieldwork projects. The project involving the 500 households is funded by the Social Science Research Council.

Concurrently, the second project involves tracking the thermal comfort of residents for two weeks, while documenting the measures they take to stay cool. Of the 100 households covered in this project, half of them will be rental flats, and this portion is funded by the Tote Board.

In the first project, participating residents are surveyed on a range of things, from the size of their utility bills to their perceptions on whether heat has worsened their moods or existing health conditions.

Researchers also conduct a home audit where they scrutinise features that could influence the dwellers’ exposure to heat, from the type of flooring to the types of lights used.

For example, fluorescent lights emit more heat than LED lights and a house that is heavily cluttered would block wind flow. The data is further analysed so researchers can measure wind flow patterns within the flats.

In Ms Subasheny’s home, the researchers measured indoor temperatures, humidity and wind speed, which are plotted against a thermal comfort standard, which defines the acceptable range of conditions of thermal comfort for building occupants.

They found that the air temperature was 30.1 deg C – warmer than the 28.7 deg C outdoors. Humidity indoors was 71 per cent. Her home also had no air flow – since the windows are kept closed to keep the cats indoors – except for her bed which has two standing fans pointed at it.

Overall, her home did not meet thermal comfort standards.

The researchers observed that older rental units like hers also tend to have lower ceilings. For these flats, it is more challenging to install ceiling fans which circulate air more effectively than stand fans, said Prof Chng.

The situation in Ms Subasheny’s home, where it is hotter indoors than out, has also been detected elsewhere.

“During some visits, we found some homes to be warmer than the outside. That’s quite worrying. Outside was about 25 deg C and inside was 30.1 deg C,” said Prof Chng, who is from SUTD’s Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities.

Air-conditioning can exacerbate the warming problem.

The researchers said that the excessive use of air-conditioning further contributes to global warming due to the release of planet-warming refrigerants, and worsens the urban heat island effect. This refers to the phenomenon where urban areas are warmer than rural areas, as buildings and roads retain heat, and vehicles and air-cons emit waste heat.

“Adaptation to thermal comfort and urban heat does not necessarily mean you need to turn on the air-con,” said Dr Zheng Kai, one of the co-leads of the research and a lecturer in the architecture and sustainable design pillar at SUTD.

Prof Chng added: “We don’t want to make air-conditioning the villain, it is a great invention. But how do we use it responsibly? When should we use it?”

From push to shove
Elsewhere in Asia, where temperatures can soar to over 40 deg C – a town in Myanmar experienced 48.2 deg C days in April 2024 – heat can be a double whammy for some communities.

This is because not only do they have to deal with the threat of scorching temperatures but they also face other factors like socio-economic status and cultural gender expectations which can make their situation worse.

Mr Mohammad Shahjahan, from the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, said rickshaw drivers, street hawkers and slum dwellers were among those hardest hit by the relentless heatwave that affected the South Asian country in April 2024.

Temperatures across Bangladesh exceeded 42 deg C during the month-long heatwave – the country’s worst in 76 years. Fifteen deaths directly linked to the heat were reported, although many other casualties could have slipped under the radar.

Rickshaw pullers, street hawkers and those in informal trades, who are usually able to work for more than 10 hours a day, could be on the ground for only up to six hours before the heat took a toll on them, said Mr Shahjahan.

Excessive sweating and dehydration caused the outdoor workers to seek drinking water from unhygienic sources such as municipality waterlines and ponds, which were not properly purified.

This led to a rise in waterborne diseases as well, added Mr Shahjahan, who is the assistant director and coordinator of the anticipatory action technical working group.

Workers whose jobs require them to be outdoors all day, such as street vendors or agricultural workers, are also highly susceptible to heat stress, which can lead to heat-related illness or lower their productivity.

They also tend to press on during periods of excessive heat, since not working means a loss of income.

For female workers who have caregiving duties to fulfil, knocking off work does not mean they get to rest.

Ms Zonibel Woods, senior social development specialist at the Asian Development Bank (ADB), told The Straits Times that women are often responsible for fetching water, cooking and caring for children and elderly family members.

During hot periods, they also face higher workloads as they have to help manage the household’s cooling needs, care for sick relatives and cope with water shortage.

In the city of Kampot in Southern Cambodia, where Kampot pepper is a vital economic crop, heatwaves destroy yields and threaten farmers’ livelihoods.

More than 60 per cent of the pepper farmers are women, many of whom are affected by heat stress, according to Banteay Srei, a Cambodian non-governmental organisation working with vulnerable women and rural communities.

Ms Phearong Sdeung, executive director at Banteay Srei, said: “They notice that they find it hard to breathe, feel stressed and have a headache when it is hot… However, they keep working hard regardless of the temperatures.”

Beating the heat
Amid growing awareness of the need to protect vulnerable members of society from rising temperatures, new solutions are being developed to help protect these groups.

These solutions range from the roll-out of new technology, to the development of new financial instruments, such as heat insurance.

In Cambodia, for example, Banteay Srei is working with other groups to pilot a solar-powered cooling and drip irrigation system that can help farmers reduce losses of their Kampot pepper crops.

The system, which uses sprinkler techniques and a more water-efficient irrigation, helps to lower surrounding temperatures and reduce farmers’ working hours under the extreme heat.

Organisations like ADB are also tapping more innovative forms of protection from heat such as parametric insurance, which is a type of insurance that triggers coverage payout if and when predefined event parameters are met or exceeded.

This is different from traditional insurance products, which require assessments of individual damage before payouts are made. For example, for a heat parametric insurance, pre-determined payouts are triggered when certain temperature thresholds are breached.

“Unlike typhoons or floods, heatwaves do not cause visible destruction which makes it difficult to claim losses,” said Ms Woods from ADB.

“The trigger for payouts would be determined based on historical weather patterns and local climate risks, to guarantee that the system reflects conditions most relevant to affected communities,” said Ms Woods.

ADB is looking to implement these policies for female informal workers, such as farmers and outdoor workers, who often suffer income loss during extreme heat events.

Pilot programmes are slated to be rolled out later in 2025 in Bangladesh, the Philippines and Sri Lanka, though the scheme is still being researched and developed, Ms Woods added.

While payout amounts have yet to be determined, the insurance is designed to offset short-term income loss or provide immediate financial relief to help women avoid precarious working conditions.

Since many informal workers often do not have traditional insurance, ADB will team up with local groups, including women’s organisations and social support networks, to find ways to develop a model that makes parametric insurance accessible, Ms Woods added.

ADB will also look at how to make the insurance premiums affordable such as through subsidies or partnerships with the government and private insurers.

In August 2024, a heatwave parametric insurance for outdoor workers was rolled out by insurance firm AXA Hong Kong and Macau, in what the insurance provider called a market-first.

Increasing temperatures pose heightened risks for certain occupations, such as construction workers, property management staff, as well as practitioners in the public utility and transportation sectors, said AXA in a press release.

AXA said it introduced the heatwave parametric insurance to provide benefits for heat stress prevention and to protect affected practitioners.

Policyholders would receive a payout of HK$100 (S$17) or an “anti-heatwave kit” of equivalent value if temperatures exceeded 36 deg C for three consecutive days between August and October in 2024.

The premium was HK$19.90 per person and insured individuals would not have to prove damage or loss and were not required to apply for additional claims or submit claim forms and supporting documents to receive the payout, according to the release.

Taking action early
Other than just reacting to heatwaves when they happen, the movement for governments to have in place early action plans and early warning systems is also picking up steam.

In 2022, the UN launched its Early Warnings for All initiative which aims for every person on earth to be protected by early warning systems by 2027.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has also highlighted the urgency for countries to develop early action plans against the heat crisis. Such a plan would require some details to be worked out, including defining what a heatwave is, and developing a threshold for when early action plans kick in.

Such early preparation can warn communities of an impending heatwave, which can help to reduce deaths and economic losses when disasters strike.

One early action plan was rolled out by the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society in Dhaka city, primarily, in the April 2024 heatwave.

The society activated the early action plan on April 21 for Dhaka city as it was forecast that the temperature threshold of at least 38 deg C over two consecutive days would be reached from April 28 to 30. The society also reached out to more than 20 severely impacted districts, covering over 400,000 people.

The Bangladesh Red Crescent Society activated 250 volunteers to help distribute umbrellas, caps and bottles of water to vulnerable groups, such as rickshaw pullers and street hawkers.

Three makeshift cooling centres were set up, each equipped with six stand fans, water and paramedics, in case people were coming in with heat exhaustion.

The Red Crescent Society also secured funds to distribute cash to 4,000 families in informal settlements.

Each household received 5,000 Bangladeshi taka (S$55) to tide them over the month and compensate for their loss in income, so they would not have to work outdoors in the heat. In those families, persons with disabilities received another 2,500 Bangladeshi taka.

However, Mr Shahjahan felt that the society has only scratched the surface with the cash distribution.

“We provided support, but it was not enough because we provided for only 4,000 households. Dhaka is a mega-city,” he said. Dhaka has more than 5,000 slums with more than four million inhabitants.

The Bangladesh Red Crescent Society is working with various agencies to develop a national-level heatwave early action plan.

While early action plans can help to avert a crisis before a heatwave hits, taking a long-term view of the crisis is also critical, experts say.

“It’s not just about having an emergency response. It’s also being prepared for it, introducing adaptation measures and actions for extreme heat,” said ADB’s Ms Woods.

“The heat action plans we develop need to look at the short-, medium- and long- term interventions that need to be taken to build the resilience of countries, communities and sectors to increasing temperatures.”

For example, a long-term heat action plan may see the incorporation of green spaces and nature-based solutions in a city where the urban heat island effect is prevalent, Ms Woods said.

Singapore, for example, is moving on this front, with its City in Nature ambitions to infuse more greenery into the city.

By 2030, all HDB estates will also be coated with heat-reflective paint, that has shown to be able to reduce ambient temperatures by up to 2 deg C.

SUTD’s Prof Chng acknowledged that Singapore has good urban planning practices and design that can mitigate some impacts of heat among urban dwellers.

But his team’s ongoing research has shown that at the household-level, some families could be disproportionately affected by rising temperatures.

He said: “We shouldn’t take our eyes off the heat. It’s very likely that it’s a warming world that we are living in. So how do we help residents in Singapore adapt better?”

“Our research focuses on how people can adapt in a sustainable manner in your own homes.”