As extreme heat intensifies across India, pressure is mounting on cities, public health systems and electricity networks. In mid-February 2026, UNEP’s Climate Change Division spent a week in Mumbai, Chennai and New Delhi working to translate heat resilience and sustainable cooling from commitments into implementation.
The mission opened in Mumbai, capital of Maharashtra and one of India’s fastest-growing urban regions, where density, rapid construction and rising cooling demand intensify heat risks. At Mumbai Climate Week 2026, UNEP and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority signed a Memorandum of Cooperation on urban heat mitigation, formalizing collaboration to scale solutions across the area.
Momentum quickly moved from commitment to participation. Thirty municipal corporations across Maharashtra joined Beat the Heat, a UNEP/COP30 national-to-local implementation drive that supports urban heat resilience through passive cooling and low-energy measures. This adds to the more than 220 cities already engaged globally.
The state also launched BeCool Maharashtra, part of the UNEP and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation programme designed to move proven measures like shading, ventilation, cool roofs and improved materials from isolated pilots into procurement rules, building regulations and investment pipelines.
UNEP’s exhibition presence during Climate Week reinforced that shift from ambition to delivery, demonstrating how heat-resilient design and energy-efficient buildings become practical when codes, procurement templates, and project preparation tools are aligned.
Away from the stage, UNEP Climate Change Division Director Martin Stefan Krause met Jayashree Bhoj, Principal Secretary of Maharashtra’s Environment Department, followed by a ministerial meeting with Environment Minister Pankaja Munde. Discussions centred on anchoring a Maharashtra State Cooling Action Plan within the state’s broader climate framework and Viksit Maharashtra 2047 roadmap. The objective is to align regulation, planning and financing so that cooling solutions move into routine public investment.
From Mumbai, the mission moved to Chennai for the Tamil Nadu Climate Summit 4.0, where the emphasis shifted to measurable rollout. In a fireside conversation with Supriya Sahu, Additional Chief Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Forests and 2025 UNEP Champion of the Earth, Krause underscored the need to move beyond emergency heat response toward structural solutions embedded in cities and buildings.
Tamil Nadu presented concrete results. Passive cooling interventions expanded from 10 to 300 government schools in a single year, improving thermal comfort for about 150,000 students. Eleven cities have joined Beat the Heat. In a significant governance step, heat has been declared a state-specific disaster, strengthening coordination and investment frameworks instead of relying on ad hoc measures.
UNEP paired summit visibility with implementation dialogue, including engagement with CREDAI, the apex body of private real estate developers in India. The session underscored that building rules, market practices and retrofit models must shift together if cooling reforms are to take hold.
Site visits illustrated what that structural shift looks like in practice. At Lady Willingdon Higher Secondary School and the Thozhi Working Women’s Hostel, UNEP reviewed passive cooling measures that materially reduce indoor heat stress and energy demand, especially in public buildings and housing where government can set standards and aggregate demand.
The week concluded in New Delhi at the India AI Impact Summit 2026, where UNEP joined a high-level panel convened by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction on closing the technology adoption gap in disaster risk reduction. UNEP positioned artificial intelligence as a practical accelerator for impact-based, last-mile early warnings and stronger extreme heat governance, provided data systems are interoperable and institutions can operationalize the tools. UNEP also offered to co-design AI pilots with NDMA and support sustainable financing through mechanisms such as the Global Environment Facility.
Krause met Manish Bharadwaj, Secretary of NDMA, to discuss a longer-term partnership spanning extreme heat, disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation. The Delhi schedule also included meetings with the Director General of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, the Secretary of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, and an Additional Secretary at the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.
Across three cities, the week delivered a coherent progression. Mumbai used a major convening moment to formalize cooperation and mobilize municipal participation while aligning regulatory and financing levers. Chennai demonstrated that passive cooling can move rapidly through public systems when governance decisions back it. New Delhi connected subnational implementation with national preparedness, financing and digital transformation, narrowing the gap between innovation and operational public services. The engagements generated broad national media coverage, reinforcing public awareness that heat resilience and cooling are emerging development priorities.
The week underscored that heat resilience is built into plans, codes, procurement systems and public assets, not only in advisories issued during emergencies. As cooling demand accelerates, the decisions taken now will determine whether cities lock in higher emissions and strained power systems, or embed comfort, productivity and public safety into the next phase of development.