Analysis: What India and Europe can learn from each other in heat preparedness?

The year 2026 is when the West is feeling the true effects of climate change and global warming. Europe is baking under a heat dome, and the United States is next, where some parts will be swept by a dangerous heatwave. India has been under the scorching sun for years, with each summer getting hotter. The Super El Niño has taken over the globe, which could lead to droughts and even hotter conditions. So how is the European heatwave different from what happens in India, and what can it tell us about our future, and what we may have gotten wrong?

According to experts, what is happening in Europe is an indication that extreme heat is becoming more frequent, intense, and prolonged worldwide. "For India, it signals hotter summers, longer heatwaves, greater water stress, and increased health risks. What is exceptional today may become normal tomorrow," Prof. (Dr.) Sanjay Kumar, Vice Chancellor, Rayat Bahra University, says.

Others think that the problem lies in the fact that the extreme heat was treated as a problem in the poorer, hotter parts of the world. India, the Gulf, and sub-Saharan Africa. “So when temperate, wealthy Europe starts recording the temperatures it has this year, the useful lesson isn't that India should brace itself. It's that the old assumption was wrong. Heat resilience was never really about how hot your climate already is, or how rich you are,” Ruchir Punjabi, co-founder of Zero Prize, an organisation that works to address India’s most urgent environmental challenges.

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The primary problem with heatwaves in India is that it comes with several add-ons. “What makes India's situation different is that heat here rarely arrives on its own. It comes with water shortages, with some of the worst air quality in the world, with dense cities and millions of people who work outdoors and simply cannot stay in,” Ruchir says. “A construction worker in Nagpur at midday has nowhere to go. A family under a tin roof in Mumbai is in unbearable heat by early afternoon.”

How India’s preparedness in tackling heat compares to Europe

India has experience on its side, and there is a lot it can learn from the way Europe is handling the crisis. But it is also true the other way around. “Indian cities have greater experience dealing with heat, while many European cities historically did not. However, Europe often has stronger healthcare and emergency systems. India has experience; Europe has infrastructure. Both still face significant challenges,” Prof. (Dr.) Sanjay Kumar says.

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In 2013, Ahmedabad introduced South Asia's first Heat Action Plan after a 2010 heatwave killed more than 1,300 people in the city. The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) worked alongside public health experts to establish a blueprint for protecting vulnerable populations. It works with three core strategies - Early Warning & Alert Systems, creating public awareness and medical and infrastructure preparedness.

The model has been replicated not just in several Indian cities but also in other South Asian countries. “Much of Europe is only writing these plans now,” Ruchir says. “The Ahmedabad plan is studied abroad precisely because it was built for a city with limited resources and high exposure, which is closer to the global norm than London or Paris is,” adds Ruchir. So India is basically ahead when it comes to plans and policies.

There is also a lazy assumption that Indian cities are concrete and grey while European ones are green and well-planned. The data doesn't support it. Delhi's green cover is around 23 per cent, higher than London's tree canopy at roughly 20 per cent.

Where Europe is ahead of India?

India has a thing or two to learn from Europe as well. The most important lesson is one India arguably learned earlier: heat is a public health problem, not just an environmental one, says Ruchir. “When hospitals fill up, when people can't work outdoors, when schools close and power grids strain, heat has stopped being about the weather,” he says. Europe basically is better at coordinating a health response across regions and on surge planning in hospitals.

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What India needs to do to tackle the increasing heat better

India can strengthen heat-health warning systems, protect vulnerable populations, expand urban green spaces, promote climate-sensitive architecture, and use data-driven planning. Heat should be treated as a major public health issue,” Prof. (Dr.) Sanjay Kumar says.

Ruchir echoes these views. “Where I think we should concentrate is urban planning, because that is where the long-term gains sit. More tree cover, shaded public spaces, cooler buildings, restored water bodies,” he says. However, simply doing all this doesn’t mean that heat exposure is lowered. “The discipline that has been missing is measuring whether an intervention actually lowers heat exposure for the people living with it, rather than assuming that good design produces good outcomes.”