New Delhi: Across South Asia, summer temperatures are already rising, and the science confirms what communities have already experienced for years. The past 11 years of record-breaking global temperatures are collectively the hottest humanity has ever measured, according to the World Meteorological Organization’s recent flagship report. This is why today, on World Health Day, a consortium of leading research, policy, and development organisations launched a new South Asia Hub of the Global Heat Health Information Network (GHHIN). Funded by Wellcome, the new Regional Hub is being hosted in New Delhi by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW).
Together, the five coordinating partners—CEEW, the Sustainable Futures Collaborative (SFC), Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), BRAC James P. Grant School of Public Health (BRAC JPGSPH), and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP)—will unify actors across government, academia, private enterprise, and civil society to improve shared learning and inform policy change.
The Hub will work in tandem with the South Asia Climate and Health Desk at the Indian Institute for Tropical Meteorology (IITM) and the India Meteorological Department (IMD) to ensure heat early warnings and heat science are used to generate impactful solutions for communities.
Serving as the region’s platform for knowledge exchange and good practice, the Hub will connect local actors to inform policy, implement practical interventions, and reduce heat risks, particularly for vulnerable populations.
Turning heat science into health action
Asia is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the world, and between 1990 and 2021, it accounted for more than half of all global heat-related deaths. South Asia bears the sharpest edge of the heat crisis: nearly 90 per cent of its population is projected to face extreme heat exposure by 2030. Yet, regional policy and response coordination often remain fragmented, and most national systems or structures still lack health-triggered warnings.
In India alone, 57 per cent of Indian districts—home to nearly three-quarters of the population—already face high to very high heat risk, according to CEEW research, with rising night-time temperatures and increasing humidity compounding heat stress, reducing the body’s ability to recover, and placing additional strain on health systems. Bangladesh has seen ‘felt temperatures’ climb by 4.5°C in the last four decades. Even Nepal and Bhutan, both high-altitude Himalayan countries, now regularly record temperatures surpassing 40°C.
Starting operations in April 2026, the South Asia GHHIN Hub will work with regional and national partners to deliver tangible benefits for families, workers, schools, hospitals, and city officials by enabling clearer alerts, safer work hours, timely cooling actions, and strengthened policy advice for better-prepared health services. The Hub will focus on, among others:
- Building a regional network of institutions, practitioners, and policymakers across South Asia — connecting climate, health, and urban planning sectors to share and build skills, foster knowledge exchange, peer learning, and coordinated heat action to safeguard health.
- Translating science into policy, working with local and regional governments to move from data to decisions through pilot projects, and pre- and post-heat season briefings and information for actionable preparedness action for governments and communities.
- Strengthening heat-health early warning systems by working with regional climate centres to close the gap between meteorological forecasting and public health response.
- Documenting and scaling what works — collecting lessons from local partners, contributing to cross-regional best practice synthesis, and ensuring South Asia’s frontline experience feeds into global knowledge platforms.
Over the next few years, the Hub aims to bring together more than 60 institutions, train over 500 professionals, and strengthen heat action plans across South Asia.
The South Asia Heat and Health Hub will be chaired by Dr Vishwas Chitale, Fellow, CEEW, who has led pioneering work on district-level heat risk assessments and heat action planning in India.
Dr Arunabha Ghosh, CEO, Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), said: “Extreme heat is not a seasonal hazard; it is a systemic risk to public health, economic productivity, and infrastructure across South Asia. What makes heat particularly dangerous is that it cuts across sectors — climate, health, labour, and urban development — yet responses often remain fragmented. At CEEW, we have been building the data, analytics, and policy partnerships needed to understand heat risk at a granular level, and we are honoured to host the South Asia Hub for the Global Heat Health Information Network to bring that evidence together with regional collaboration. By convening governments, researchers, and practitioners across South Asia, we hope to turn heat science into coordinated heat action that protects the most vulnerable.”
Alejandro Saez Reale, Global Heat Health Information Network (GHHIN) Coordinator, said: “The launch of the South Asia Hub is a milestone for the expansion of GHHIN’s global network. Some of the world’s most heat-exposed cities and communities are in this region — and access to the best available science, tools, and peer knowledge is essential to protect people’s lives. This Hub creates the architecture for that exchange, linking actors and institutions across South Asia to a growing global community of practitioners and policymakers – many of them coming together at the upcoming Global Heat and Cooling Forum in New Delhi later this month – working to make heat a visible, actionable priority.
Dr Joy Shumake-Guillemot, WHO-WMO Climate and Health Joint Programme, said: “Climate change is driving more intense and more frequent heat – with dramatic consequences for our environment and health. We have the tools to respond – through heat action plans, early warning systems, and cross-sectoral sharing – but these tools only work if institutions are connected and pulling in the same direction – which is exactly what the South Asia Hub and its partners have set out to do.”
Dr Catharina Cora Boehme, Officer-in-Charge, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for South East Asia , said: “Extreme heat is one of the most urgent public health risks of our time, yet it often remains invisible in policy and planning. Strengthening the link between science and public health action is essential. This Hub reflects the spirit of World Health Day, standing with science to protect lives.”
