A multidimensional assessment of systemic cooling poverty in the global south

Abstract

Physiologically extreme heat increasingly threatens human health, particularly where climatic exposure intersects with systemic social, infrastructural and institutional unpreparedness. Systemic cooling poverty (SCP) describes conditions in which individuals are prevented from attaining thermal safety as a result of intersecting forms of systemic deprivation. Here we quantify SCP across 28 countries, mostly in the global south, by combining household survey data (n = 1,155,106 households), climate records and infrastructure datasets. We operationalize SCP through five dimensions—climate exposure, infrastructure and assets, social and thermal inequalities, health, and education and working standards—and construct an SCP index at subnational scale. SCP is widespread and unevenly distributed: almost 600 million people experience high levels of deprivation across SCP dimensions. Education, working standards and climate exposure are the most prevalent drivers. These results show that vulnerability to extreme heat arises from intersecting climatic and socio-institutional factors, highlighting the need for coordinated policies that address multiple dimensions of heat adaptation.