The White House posted a readout of last week’s first-ever “Summit on Extreme Heat,” which included more than 100 participants representing federal agencies, workers exposed to extreme heat, healthcare professionals, and emergency responders.
At the summit, White House Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi announced a new “Extreme Heat Call to Action” that invites interested organizations to submit a commitment to take actions to address extreme heat, such as: (1) heat preparedness actions, like equipping first responders and healthcare providers with new resources to address extreme heat; (2) heat response actions, like opening new Resilience Hubs or cooling centers during extreme heat events; (3) long-term adaptation and resilience actions, like installing new cooling infrastructure and improving tree canopy; (4) heat recovery actions, such as establishing new ways to track progress on key heat and health metrics; and (5) heat planning actions, like running a heat tabletop exercise or creating a community phone tree in conjunction with trusted community partners.
The White House also announced the publication of a Draft Community Heat Action Checklist to help “local governments taking their first critical steps towards planning and preparing for extreme heat.”