Background
Extreme heat is one of the defining development and resilience challenges of the twenty-first century, affecting health and human welfare, labor productivity, education, food and water security, infrastructure, energy systems, ecosystems and economic stability. The Singapore Global Cooling Pledge Assembly sent a clear message: heat resilience and sustainable cooling must be addressed together to reduce heat exposure and cooling demand, while bringing together efforts by governments to deliver on climate and development commitments.
The Singapore Global Cooling Pledge Assembly 2026, hosted by Singapore from 15 to 18 September 2026, brought together more than 230 delegates, including representatives from 60 countries, subnational governments and partners. Its Outcome Document set out three directions: an ecosystem for supporting heat resilience and sustainable cooling; a shared agenda on heat resilience and sustainable cooling; and turning priorities into country led delivery.
Held as an official COP31 event, this third Cooling Ministerial Roundtable carries these outcomes to Antalya. It brings together Pledge signatories and other participating governments to take stock of progress on heat resilience and sustainable cooling, launch the Global Heat Resilience Roadmap country-led development process, and invite collaboration through the thematic action coalitions of the Workplan 2027 to 2028. The Ministerial Roundtable builds on Singapore Assembly Outcome Document, and the Belém Communiqué on Extreme Heat adopted at COP30, and welcomes the Antalya to Addis Heat Resilience Declaration and opens endorsement to be consolidated with the launch of the jointly developed Global Heat Resilience Roadmap at COP32 in Addis Ababa.
The COP31 Presidency has set two headline objectives: reducing building sector energy intensity by 25 per cent by 2035 and increasing the share of electricity in final energy consumption to 35 per cent by 2035. Passive and highly efficient cooling sits at the intersection of both.
The Ministerial Roundtable will reinforce the need for urgent action on heat resilience and sustainable cooling together – including through co-develop of a Roadmap on Heat Resilience – and strengthen the Global Cooling Pledge as a key international platform for heat and sustainable cooling, and accelerate integrated action through enhanced international cooperation, technical support, and investment in heat resilience and sustainable cooling solutions. The roundtable also positions heat resilience and sustainable cooling as a central sectoral contribution to the next phase of Paris Agreement implementation and the second Global Stocktake dialogue, which opens at COP31.
