Heat resilience must go local
Reflecting on this year's climate weeks ahead of COP31
By Jane Gilbert Thu, Oct 29, 2026
Four years ago, it was novel to talk about the rising risks of extreme heat. At Climate Week NYC gatherings back then, there was buzz around panels focused on the health and economic risks of extreme heat.
This year was different. There is no longer a need to articulate the severity and scale extreme heat’s impacts. Instead, they’re all over the news. For example, at one point this July, it was reported that over 185 million Americans were under extreme heat alerts at the same time. And annual heat deaths are on the rise.
Notably, heat has more clearly become a cross-sector issue. For an event the Climate Resilience Center hosted, the room was filled with state and local leaders as well as engineering, tech, industry, insurance, and academic experts.
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The focus on data and artificial intelligence
With all those actors in the same space, the session unearthed a shifting sense of worry and opportunity regarding heat resilience. The worry was that there is a lack of data to help drive decisions.
The United States and many other countries have increasingly robust climate and weather data at the city scale. However, there is a growing recognition that such data is no longer enough. There is a need for hyperlocal data about each street or block.
There is also a need to widen the types of data collected. For example, these data systems need more granular health data, since weather forecasting alone cannot accurately predict heat stress.
Collecting that data will require the right mix of innovators, private sector partners, researchers, insurance and medical providers, nonprofit leaders, and government policymakers. It will also require cutting-edge technology. For example, AI modeling could advance data-collection capabilities. But—as several Climate Week NYC events noted— there are concerns about its environmental costs. So, while cities could explore how AI can enhance sensors and tracking in new infrastructure contracts (e.g., bus stops or electric utility infrastructure), they shouldn’t forget the larger, existential questions over AI.
The road from New York City to Antalya
Climate Week NYC is known as a testing ground for start-ups and climate technology pitches. This year was no different: On display were super cooling fabrics, shade structures, personal heat stress monitors, and various AI-enabled modeling platforms. More than once, panels of investors articulated that companies look to the private sector market first as governments at all levels are too slow to adopt new technologies.
That may work for solutions geared toward corporate or individual consumers who have cash to spend. However, the most impactful interventions for rising extreme heat require adapting public spaces and solutions for those with limited means.
Therefore, beyond government incentives, there is little drive for these tech innovators to invest their time or talent in designing and scaling innovative solutions. Governments are largely set up to fix static problems. As one participant in the Climate Resilience Center’s event said, “We have twentieth century cities needing to address twenty-first century conditions.”
But the changing conditions of climate change and rapid technological advancement require multi-disciplinary teams that move quickly and create replicable and scalable solutions. If we all act like extreme heat is the crisis that it is—instead of acting like frogs sitting in a slowly heating pot—we can build the resilient communities needed. As the world prepares for COP31, it must confront the reality that we are no longer preventing overshoot but trying to recover from it, making this crisis more urgent than ever.
Jane Gilbert is the center’s Chief Heat Ambassador. She served as the world’s first chief heat officer in Miami-Dade County and the city of Miami’s first chief resilience officer. Gilbert is a recognized voice in national climate resilience efforts.
