Chief Heat Officers: an innovation to help protect our children from extreme heat

Children are particularly vulnerable to extreme heat. Climate change is making extreme heat events more common. It’s therefore urgent to ensure that children are centered in efforts to build resilience to extreme heat. An innovative position that some cities have recently established–the chief heat officer–is a promising way to do this.

There are many reasons for children’s particular vulnerability to extreme heat. Some are physiological. For instance, they breathe more air relative to their body weight than adults do. They are more susceptible to dehydration than adults are and have a harder time regulating their body temperature. Other reasons are behavioral. For example, children often play outside. They may not understand the need to limit their activities in extreme heat or recognize danger signs of heat illness.

This vulnerability occurs against the backdrop of an increase in extreme heat events caused by climate change. The global average surface temperature has risen at an average rate of 0.17°F per decade since 1901. The decade 2012-2021 was the warmest decade on record.

Over the last several months, the Early Years Climate Action Task Force, convened by Capita and This is Planet Ed (an initiative of the Aspen Institute) held a series of listening sessions to learn more about ways to help young children and their families flourish despite the negative impacts of climate change. We heard countless examples from child care providers, health care professionals, government representatives, and others about the impacts of extreme heat. Many cited the need for child care centers to keep children indoors because the outside temperatures were so high. Others described the need to close centers altogether during heat waves because their buildings lacked air conditioning. We heard about one health clinic that did have air conditioning yet still had to close–the system simply couldn’t keep up with the increasing number of high-heat days.

We also heard about the inequitable impacts of extreme heat on children of color or children living in marginalized communities. Those children are more likely to live in heat islands and less likely to have air conditioning. Extreme heat is also a risk multiplier. It compounds the effects of air pollution, food and housing insecurity, and other risks that these children are more likely to experience. Marta Segura, the Chief Heat Officer of Los Angeles, described the impacts of high heat on the city’s Wilmington neighborhood, a refinery region so polluted that it makes the lips and nostrils burn. When the gas facilities are flaring and the heat is high, residents are told to stay indoors–but the indoor environment also poses heat and pollution risks.

But there is good news. Promising new innovations in policy and practice are emerging to help us build resilience to the effects of extreme heat. Given their vulnerability, children must be explicitly centered in those efforts.

One such innovation is found in cities that have established the position of chief heat officer in city government. Emerging from the work of the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center and the Extreme Heat Resilience Alliance, these positions are now funded in Athens, Freetown, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Miami-Dade (county), Monterrey, and Santiago. They are designed to consolidate their cities’ actions on extreme heat. As a heat-focused complement to the work of other officials (e.g. chief resilience officers) broadly focused on a city’s resilience, chief heat officers are charged with stepping up existing efforts on heat protection and developing new efforts to reduce both the risks and effects of extreme heat.

What can chief heat officers do to more explicitly support the well-being of children and families on an increasingly hotter planet?

First, they can increase awareness of the particular dangers of extreme heat on the healthy development of young children–the precursor to all future actions. They can also facilitate greater coordination between child- and family-serving agencies and agencies focused on the environment in efforts to build resilience and preparedness. For instance, a city’s chief heat officer might work with local early childhood agencies to help child care businesses develop heat emergency preparedness plans and responses. Alternatively, the officers may advise and guide actions for climate adaptation focused towards young children in new neighborhood plans or long term capital investment plans that a city may undertake.

While they work directly with child- and family-serving systems, chief heat officers can also ensure that the needs of children and families are incorporated into their broader efforts to build resilience. For example, cities that are developing cooling centers should ensure that centers are accessible and hospitable to children and families. Are they located close to families with young children? Do they have play areas? Space for nursing mothers? Spaces for toddlers to nap? City wellness check programs, which ensure that vulnerable city residents are supported during heat emergencies, should classify young children as a vulnerable population. They should incorporate existing efforts that support families with young children, such as home visiting, into wellness-check initiatives.

Finally, planning local responses to extreme heat can take an explicitly equity-centered approach that incorporates the particular vulnerabilities of young children, especially those from communities of color. For example, Miami-Dade’s recently released Extreme Heat Action Plan proposes to use the University of Miami’s Climate and Equity Mapping Platform to prioritize cooling upgrades in the neighborhoods disproportionately exposed to the effects of extreme heat through racist housing and development policies. Similarly, Los Angeles is using a map of heat risks created by UCLA to target its efforts.

Building a future in which all families flourish despite the effects of extreme heat requires earnest, intersectional effort from across government and society. With an explicit focus on the needs of young children, chief heat officers can be a promising way to jump-start this effort. It’s an innovation that other areas should also adopt.

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