TN, UK launch centre to coordinate heat-risk management
The Heat Resilience Centre would serve as TN’s nodal institution to coordinate heat-risk management across sectors
Representative Image (ANI)
CHENNAI: The State government and the UK jointly launched a ‘Heat Resilience Centre’ for TN to strengthen its capacity to address rising extreme heat conditions.
According to a statement, a Letter of Intent (LoI) was signed between Supriya Sahu, Additional Chief Secretary, Environment, Climate Change and Forests Department, and Seema Malhotra MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, the UK.
The Heat Resilience Centre would serve as TN’s nodal institution to coordinate heat-risk management across sectors. It would establish a scientific and institutional governance framework, build technical capacity across departments, including health and urban development, among others.
The centre would also generate evidence, climate data and policy-relevant tools. It would also support city and district-level heat action planning, an official release said on Friday.
The initiative is supported through the UK’s flagship Climate Action for a Resilient Asia (CARA) programme, and implemented in partnership with the UN and World Resources Institute. The programme would run till September 2026.
With this initiative, TN has become one of India’s first states to create a dedicated institutional mechanism to address extreme heat, the release said. Sahu said that accurate heat maps and clearly defined heat-risk zones was an essential foundation for climate readiness in the State.
“Tamil Nadu is taking a science-first approach to identify heat risk zones in every city, so that planners, health systems, and local bodies know exactly where vulnerabilities lie,” she added. “With high-resolution satellite data and ground sensors, we should be able to map heat the way we map floods or air pollution. This will enable us to redesign neighbourhoods, guide construction, strengthen ventilation corridors and create pockets of thermal safety.”
Pointing out that extreme heat was one of the most urgent climate challenges, Malhotra stated: “TN has already demonstrated visionary leadership by being the first Indian state to establish a Green Climate Fund and recognise heatwaves as a state-specific disaster. Launch of the Heat Resilience Centre marks an important milestone in this journey.”