Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: For one city in the US, hot temperatures are not new. Officials in Phoenix, Arizona, have spent years working on solutions to reduce heat deaths. It is not just Phoenix. Several parts of the US are facing heat deaths . At least 44 heat-related deaths were reported in the country over the 4 July holiday weekend from the extreme weather.
Not just the US. Even Europe is experiencing blistering heat. France reported an increase of more than 2,000 deaths during the record-breaking heatwave in late June. In England and Wales, scientists estimated that more than 2,700 people may have died from heatrelated causes from a series of heatwaves since May.
For many, the rising temperatures have been a shock to the system, a new reality people have had to adjust to as extreme weather events become more frequent and intense with climate change. Efforts to beat the heat seem to be working in Phoenix, and it could provide a blueprint for the world.
Maricopa County, where Phoenix is located, has some of the hottest temperatures in the US so it finds itself at the forefront of the battle over heat safety – working on programmes that offer residents access to cooling centres and free air conditioning.
Phoenix was the first city worldwide to hire a heat officer in 2021. “We’ve had the relative benefit of knowing that this is going to be a problem every year, but it appears to be more and more of a problem or more of a predictable event in communities across the globe,” Maricopa County’s chief medical officer Nicholas Staab told the BBC.
The county’s efforts to reduce the number of heatrelated deaths have proved successful in recent years. After heat-related deaths reached a peak of 645 in 2023, they declined to 405 in 2025 – with many experts attributing part of the decline to the policy changes.
Much of the focus has been on increasing access to air conditioning, as many heat deaths were among people with low incomes or experiencing homelessness. The county offers consistent, open access to cool spaces. They have expanded the hours those spaces are open – in some cases they are open 24 hours – getting people off the streets and out of the heat.
Another programme offers eligible residents repairs or replacements to their air conditioning systems. Ladd Keith, director of the Heat Resilience Initiative at the University of Arizona, told the BBC that other places could, like Phoenix, appoint a heat officer – someone to oversee initiatives and run communications among government offices.
But the downward trend is not guaranteed. Already this year, as of July 11, Maricopa County has recorded 23 heat-related deaths, with another 282 more under investigation. Should those hold, the numbers would outpace the previous year.
Getting hotter and hotter
Heatwaves have become more frequent, more intense and longerlasting because of human-induced climate change. The world has already warmed by more than 1.1C since the industrial era began and temperatures will keep rising for some time even if governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions. Heat is not only a health issue but an infrastructure and economic issue as well, according to experts.
An expert says, “We have to shift away from planning for the historic heat we’ve experienced and start to plan for the heat we’re going to experience in the next five to 10 years. If people think it’s bad now, it’s going to be hotter, and it’s going to be hotter longer. The records are going to be broken, you can almost guarantee, year after year across the world.”
