Tamil Nadu, United Kingdom launch Heat Resilience Centre to tackle rising extreme heat

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government and the United Kingdom jointly launched a "Heat Resilience Centre" for the state to strengthen its capacity to address rising extreme heat conditions.

According to a statement, a Letter of Intent (LoI) was signed between Additional Chief Secretary, Environment, Climate Change and Forests Department, Supriya Sahu and Seema Malhotra MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Government of the United Kingdom.

The Heat Resilience Centre would serve as Tamil Nadu's nodal institution to coordinate heat-risk management across sectors.

It would establish a scientific and institutional governance framework, build technical capacity across departments, including health and urban development, among others.

The centre would also generate evidence, climate data and policy-relevant tools. It would also support city and district-level heat action planning, an official release said on Friday.

The initiative is supported through the UK's flagship Climate Action for a Resilient Asia (CARA) programme, and it is being implemented in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Resources Institute. The programme would run till September 2026. With this initiative, Tamil Nadu has become one of India's first states to create a dedicated institutional mechanism to address extreme heat, the release said.

Commenting on the occasion, Supriya Sahu said, "Accurate heat maps and clearly defined heat-risk zones should be an essential foundation for climate readiness in the State. Tamil Nadu is taking a science-first approach to identify heat risk zones in every city, so that planners, health systems, and local bodies know exactly where vulnerabilities lie."

"With high-resolution satellite data and ground sensors, we should be able to map heat the way we map floods or air pollution. This will enable us to redesign neighbourhoods, guide construction, strengthen ventilation corridors and create pockets of thermal safety," she added.

Seema Malhotra MP, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Government of the United Kingdom, said, "Extreme heat is one of the most urgent climate challenges we face. Without targeted action, the impacts of heat stress will continue to grow, affecting the lives and livelihoods of millions of people across the region."

"The United Kingdom is proud to partner with Tamil Nadu in this pioneering effort. The state has already demonstrated visionary leadership by being the first Indian state to establish a Green Climate Fund and recognise heatwaves as a state-specific disaster," Malhotra said. "Today's launch of the Heat Resilience Centre marks an important milestone in this leadership journey," she added.