About the Cool Capital Stack
Climate-driven extreme heat impacts everyone on the planet, particularly marginalized communities, women, and children who are disproportionately impacted. With rising global temperatures and more frequent and intense heat waves, extreme heat is causing significant public health issues, economic loss, human suffering, and increasing mortality rates. Despite the urgency, climate adaptation finance is failing to invest at a pace and scale that matches the threats and risks posed by extreme heat and other climate impacts. This is where the Cool Capital Stack comes in.
The Cool Capital Stack is a global financing initiative that delivers immediate, on-the-ground impact by mobilizing the full range of capital sources to accelerate climate adaptation investment.
With partners, we are co-creating financial solutions to invest in passive and clean mechanical cooling projects and technologies to provide relief to those people and communities which have been most impacted by—but contributed the least to—global warming. Solutions are designed by individuals, local communities, and civic organizations and yet are structured to deliver global outcomes. This “local scale, global impact” model guides our partnerships and financial solutions.
There is no time to lose. Will you join us?
Mobilizing the full range of cooling capital sources
To be successful in addressing climate-driven extreme heat, the Cool Capital Stack will mobilize all forms of capital – commercial and concessional to public, insurance, and philanthropy. Our solutions will provide opportunities that are suitable for funding, financing, and de-risking.
Philanthropic and insurance partners and concessional investors will play a critical role, particularly in the early years, in filling a critical gap in the climate adaptation finance field and delivering micro-impact for people and communities.
Protecting cities from extreme heat with innovative investment strategies
Climate-driven extreme heat poses massive risks to cities
Cities are home to more than 4 billion people and the urban heat island effect creates deadly conditions and significant public health risks, particularly for poor and vulnerable communities.
Yet, next to climate crises like hurricanes and floods, heat’s costly impacts on cities are relatively unknown. Cities often lack access to technical expertise, financing, tools, and data to help them effectively design, improve, and adapt to this urgent challenge.
Working with local communities, investors, funders, cities, and other partners, the Cool Capital Stack seeks to address this urgent need—creating cooler, more livable, and heat-resilient communities across the globe.
$750 million across 7 cities: the demand for cooling continues to grow
The Cool Capital Stack initiative has identified an initial $750 Million investment need across seven cities: Athens, Freetown, Santiago, Monterrey, Melbourne, Miami-Dade, and Los Angeles.
Projects include passive, nature-based projects such as cool and green roofs, reflective surfaces, urban forests and greening, park creation and enhancement, water infrastructure and reuse initiatives, plus scalable emerging technologies in early warning.
This is just the beginning. With new and existing partners, we will grow this pipeline and expand it to include clean, efficient cooling technologies. We recognize the urgent need to prioritize investment in the Global South, especially for marginalized communities, women, and children.
The economic impact of extreme heat
Heat-related economic losses around the world are high and growing. The Cool Capital Stack pipeline is linked, in part, to a study by Arsht-Rock and Vivid Economics quantifying the impacts of heat in 12 global cities on local economies and the personal income of marginalized workers.
- In the US alone, the economic costs of extreme heat are estimated to reach $100 Billion annually. From 1992 to 2013, an estimated $16 trillion was lost to the effects of high temperatures on human health, productivity, and agricultural output.
- In Miami, over $10 billion is lost to heat under current conditions—more than Miami-Dade County’s entire annual budget.
- In New Delhi, the expected economic loss to heat will rise to almost 5 percent by 2050—that’s $6.1 billion.
- In Dhaka, heat stress impairs labor productivity more than any other city in this study, with current losses estimated at 8 percent of the city’s gross domestic product (GDP).
Local-scale, global impact: Our projects protect people now
By aggregating localized solutions under one initiative, the Cool Capital Stack can quickly deploy and scale investments— delivering impact now—to help communities, cities, and nations adapt to extreme heat. Browse the projects in our pipeline in the carousel below:
Get involved
Thank you to our funders and partners
