• Ollie Jay, Anthony Capon, Peter Berry, Carolyn Broderick, Richard de Dear, George Havenith, Yasushi Honda, R Sari Kovats, Wei Ma, Arunima Malik, Nathan B Morris, Lars Nybo, Sonia I Seneviratne, Jennifer Vanos, and Kristie L Ebi.
• Thermal Ergonomics Laboratory, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia; Sydney School of Health Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia; Sydney School of Public Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia; Faculty of Medicine and Health, Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia. Electronic address: ollie.jay@sydney.edu.au.
• Lancet. 2021 Aug 21; 398 (10301): 709-724.

AbstractHeat extremes (ie, heatwaves) already have a serious impact on human health, with ageing, poverty, and chronic illnesses as aggravating factors. As the global community seeks to contend with even hotter weather in the future as a consequence of global climate change, there is a pressing need to better understand the most effective prevention and response measures that can be implemented, particularly in low-resource settings. In this Series paper, we describe how a future reliance on air conditioning is unsustainable and further marginalises the communities most vulnerable to the heat. We then show that a more holistic understanding of the thermal environment at the landscape and urban, building, and individual scales supports the identification of numerous sustainable opportunities to keep people cooler. We summarise the benefits (eg, effectiveness) and limitations of each identified cooling strategy, and recommend optimal interventions for settings such as aged care homes, slums, workplaces, mass gatherings, refugee camps, and playing sport. The integration of this information into well communicated heat action plans with robust surveillance and monitoring is essential for reducing the adverse health consequences of current and future extreme heat.Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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