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Bangladesh's reliance on LNG increases financial, energy and climate risks
Bangladesh has significantly increased its reliance on imported LNG to meet rising electricity demand as domestic gas reserves decline, but this has left the country vulnerable to global price volatility and supply shocks. This reliance has led to widespread power cuts, industrial losses, and increased electricity costs, while renewable energy growth has stagnated, accounting for only 2% of electricity generation by 2022. The report warns that continued investment in gas infrastructure risks creating stranded assets and exacerbating climate change, to which Bangladesh is highly vulnerable. Specifically, heat stress is projected to cause significant GDP losses and labour productivity declines by 2030. The document argues that scaling up solar and wind power is a cheaper, more reliable alternative that would reduce financial risk and climate vulnerability.
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Document type: Report
Tackling climate change could be the greatest global health opportunity of the 21st century
The document outlines the severe health threats posed by climate change, including increased mortality from heatwaves, air pollution, and infectious diseases, while highlighting the 'triple win' of improving public health, creating a sustainable economy, and protecting the environment through aggressive mitigation and adaptation.
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Document type: Briefing
Global access to cooling gaps 2023: Summary
The Chilling Prospects 2023 analysis identifies 1.12 billion people at high risk of lacking cooling access, primarily the rural and urban poor. While high-risk populations decreased slightly by 20.4 million since 2022, the lower-middle-income group at medium risk grew to 2.9 billion people. The report highlights significant gender disparities, with women overrepresented in high-risk groups, and identifies 'Critical 9' countries—including India, China, and Nigeria—where the most pronounced risks exist.
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Document type: Executive summary
How an Indiana Church Serves Its Community Through Clean Energy and Local Food
The Progressive Community Church in Gary, Indiana, has implemented a multifaceted sustainability strategy to combat high energy burdens and industrial pollution in the Emerson neighborhood. By installing a 7.6 kW solar array and energy efficiency upgrades, the church achieved net-zero electricity for eleven months of the year and assisted community members in accessing weatherization grants. Additionally, the church established the F.A.I.T.H. Farm, producing 15,000 pounds of food annually, and is developing an urban park to mitigate heat stress and improve air quality.
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Document type: Case study
Growing Degree Days
Between 1970 and 2021, growing degree days (GDD)—a measure of heat accumulation used to track plant and pest development—increased at 97% of 246 analyzed stations across the contiguous U.S. The average increase was 525 GDD, with the most significant rises occurring in the West, Southwest, and South. While some plants may benefit, increased GDD is linked to higher water and heat stress, altered agricultural schedules, and longer pollen seasons that exacerbate health issues like asthma and hay fever.
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Document type: Fact sheet
Cooling for health services
The report highlights the critical link between sustainable cooling and the achievement of SDG3 (good health and well-being), emphasizing that vaccine efficacy and patient care depend on reliable cold chains and temperature-controlled environments. It identifies significant gaps in cold chain equipment and electricity access in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and Gavi-eligible nations. The document advocates for a combination of passive design, nature-based solutions, and energy-efficient appliances, such as super-efficient refrigerators and solar direct drive technology, to ensure health service resilience in a warming world.
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Document type: Report
Cooling for human comfort and safety
The report highlights the escalating risks of extreme heat on human health and productivity, noting that 356,000 people died from extreme heat in 2019. It argues that while cooling demand is expected to soar—with space-cooling units potentially reaching 2.5 billion by 2030—this must be managed through sustainable solutions to avoid tripling global electricity demand by 2050. The text advocates for a mix of passive cooling, nature-based solutions, and energy-efficient active cooling, supported by policies like Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) and the appointment of Chief Heat Officers in cities such as Athens and Miami Dade County.
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Document type: Report
Évaluation des actifs durables (SAVi) des infrastructures basées sur la nature dans le cadre d’un projet agroforestier à Welkenraedt (Belgique)
The report assesses a simulated agroforestry project in Welkenraedt, Belgium, covering approximately 100,000 m2 of hedges and trees. Using the SAVi tool and C3S climate data, the analysis demonstrates that the project is financially viable when environmental and social externalities are included. Key findings include estimated net benefits of 3.9 million euros over 20 years against an investment of 607,629 euros. The study highlights how agroforestry mitigates climate risks, such as reducing heat stress for livestock and preventing soil erosion and nutrient runoff, with benefits expected to increase under RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 climate scenarios.
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Document type: Report
COOLING FOR ALL AND GENDER
The document analyzes how gender norms, poverty, and social structures exacerbate the vulnerabilities of women and girls to heat stress and limit their access to cooling services. It highlights specific risks in healthcare, domestic labor, and agriculture, while calling for sex-disaggregated data and gender-transformative policies to achieve universal sustainable cooling.
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Document type: Policy brief
Co-producing climate information for Windhoek decision making
The FRACTAL project developed three Climate Risk Narratives (CRNs) for Windhoek to translate complex climate projections into non-technical, actionable scenarios for the 2040s. These narratives—ranging from 'much hotter and drier' to 'warmer with similar rainfall'—were co-produced through 'Learning Labs' involving scientists, city officials, and stakeholders. The CRNs served as 'boundary objects' to facilitate dialogue and inform the City of Windhoek's Integrated Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (ICCSAP). Findings highlight critical vulnerabilities in water security due to increased evaporation and the disproportionate impact of flooding on informal settlements.
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Document type: Research paper
The Air We Breathe
The research indicates that imagery of air pollution is more effective at communicating the health impacts of climate change to the UK public than images of floods, heat stress, or infectious disease. The document recommends using the high salience of air pollution to build a relatable visual narrative that introduces other climate-health links, while combining vulnerability-focused images with solution-oriented photos to foster a sense of efficacy.
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Document type: Executive summary
CHILLING PROSPECTS TRACKING SUSTAINABLE COOLING FOR ALL 2020
The report identifies that 1.02 billion people among the rural and urban poor across 54 high-impact countries remain at high risk due to a lack of access to cooling in 2020. It highlights a 'productivity penalty' where heat stress is estimated to cause an annual economic loss of USD 630 billion across these countries, with significant impacts on the agricultural sector. The document also examines how the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated these vulnerabilities, particularly regarding the medical cold chain for vaccines and food security. To address these challenges, it proposes a sustainable cooling framework based on three needs (comfort & safety, food & nutrition, health & care), five solution approaches (protect, reduce, shift, improve, leverage), and four solution pillars (technology, services, policy, financial).
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Document type: Report
Farmworkers at Risk
The report examines the vulnerability of approximately 2.4 million US farmworkers to the combined risks of pesticide exposure and extreme heat. It argues that climate change increases these risks by expanding pest ranges and increasing the frequency of dangerous heat days. Focusing on California, Florida, and Washington, the report highlights a lack of federal heat standards and inconsistent pesticide safety enforcement. It recommends federal OSHA heat standards, the extension of labor protections like minimum wage and overtime to farmworkers, and a transition toward agroecological farming systems to reduce pesticide dependence.
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Document type: Report
Imagining Climate Futures
The case study explores how stakeholders in Dordrecht, a vulnerable Dutch city, imagine various climate futures to foster participatory climate resilience. Through narrative interviews, four scenarios emerged: a 'doomsday' future involving total dyke failure and depopulation; a 'disruptive' future marked by frequent pluvial flooding and heat stress; a 'challenged but bearable' future where adaptation measures like 'sponge' neighborhoods and increased water room mitigate impacts; and a 'climate resilient safe future' characterized by global carbon neutrality and systemic zero-carbon urban development. The research emphasizes that historical memories of floods, such as the 1421 St. Elisabeth flood, strongly influence current perceptions of risk and the desire for collaborative climate action.
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Document type: Case study
COOLING FOR ALL NEEDS ASSESSMENT SCORECARD
The Cooling for All Needs Assessment Scorecard is a tool designed to measure access to cooling through specific guiding questions and indicators. It focuses on three key areas: human comfort and safety (addressing heat stress and productivity), food and nutrition security (focusing on agricultural incomes, diet, and cold chain food loss), and health services (evaluating vaccine programs and the security of medical cold chains). The scorecard allows users to track baseline and latest values to determine trends and ratings.
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Document type: Fact sheet
Heat Waves and Climate Change
The document details the rising trends of heat waves and heat stress in the US, attributing recent increases to human-caused climate change and projecting more severe events by 2100 unless emissions are stabilized.
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Document type: Fact sheet
Rocky Mountain Forests at Risk
The forests of the Rocky Mountains are facing a 'triple assault' of tree-killing insects, wildfires, and heat and drought, all amplified by human-caused global warming. Bark beetle outbreaks killed trees on 46 million acres between 2000 and 2012, while large wildfires have increased in frequency and intensity. Iconic species like whitebark pines, quaking aspens, and piñon pines are in catastrophic decline. Projections suggest that if emissions continue unchecked, average regional temperatures could rise by 10°F by the end of the century, potentially replacing conifer forests with shrublands or grasslands. The report advocates for risk assessment, stakeholder engagement, managing for resilience, increasing agency capacity, addressing community vulnerability, and deep reductions in heat-trapping emissions.
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Document type: Report
Rising Temperatures, Deadly Threat: Recommendations to Prepare Outdoor Workers in Ahmedabad
The document focuses on the vulnerability of outdoor construction workers in Ahmedabad to extreme heat, advocating for coordinated action among government, labor groups, and healthcare providers to mitigate heat stress.
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Document type: Policy brief
Using climate information to support adaptation planning and policy-making
The document outlines an eight-step process for integrating scientific climate data into adaptation planning, emphasizing that adaptation is a socio-institutional learning process rather than a purely technical exercise. It demonstrates this workflow through a case study in the Philippi suburb of Cape Town, where climate data is used to evaluate the trade-offs between maintaining vegetable production and rezoning land for low-cost housing. The guide highlights the importance of using both historical observations and future projections (RCP 4.5 and 8.5) to inform decisions on flood risk and heat stress.
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Document type: Guide
Global Knowledge Review (Second Revision) TA to PDMA-Punjab in Incorporating Climate Compatibility Considerations into Reconstruction and Village Planning
The report examines post-disaster reconstruction and rural planning in Europe and Asia, with a specific focus on Punjab, Pakistan. It argues for a shift from reactive, top-down planning to decentralized, 'bottom-up' approaches that integrate Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA). The document identifies key climatic risks for Punjab—primarily flooding and high temperatures—and proposes a suite of adaptive design options and low-carbon technologies to increase the resilience of buildings and infrastructure.
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Document type: Report