SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being | SDG 13: Climate Action | SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals
India Meteorological Department (IMD) | Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES)
At Mumbai Climate Week on February 20, 2026, the WMO-WHO Climate and Health Joint Programme, in partnership with The Rockefeller Foundation and Wellcome, launched two major initiatives to protect South Asians from the escalating threat of extreme heat. These initiatives include the South Asia Climate–Health Desk, implemented with the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) and the IMD, and the South Asia Scientific Research Consortium, led by IISER Pune. Together, they aim to bridge the gap between climate science and public health action by developing tailored heat-risk thresholds and early warning decision-support tools. With Asia warming nearly twice as fast as the global average and India losing an estimated 247 billion labor hours to heat exposure in 2024, these programs represent the first steps of a broader regional strategy to transform cutting-edge science into life-saving impacts for the world’s most populated region.
Key Pillars of the South Asia Extreme Heat Initiatives
Climate–Health Science Integration: Establishing the South Asia Climate–Health Desk to translate weather information into actionable health early warnings.
Tailored Heat-Risk Thresholds: Deepening the scientific understanding of how heat affects vulnerable populations (children, outdoor workers, pregnant people) through the Research Consortium.
Transdisciplinary Action: Equipping health systems and public services with integrated knowledge to prevent avoidable illnesses and heat-related mortality.
Operational Early Warnings: Strengthening the science-to-services pathway to ensure decision-makers act in time to protect communities during severe heat events.
Resilient Health Systems: Investing in climate-ready health infrastructure to address the $194 billion income loss attributed to heat exposure in India.
What is the “South Asia Climate–Health Desk”? The South Asia Climate–Health Desk is a specialized unit within the WHO–WMO Climate and Health Joint Programme, designed to harmonize meteorological monitoring with public health responses. It is one of the first global units to combine operational forecasting with research and development in climate-health. By working directly with national agencies like the IMD and IITM, the Desk ensures that “excess heat” is not just measured by degrees on a thermometer, but by its specific impact on human physiology and labor capacity, allowing for the creation of district-level Heat Action Plans (HAPs) that are dynamic and evidence-based.
Policy Relevance
For India, these WMO-WHO initiatives represent a transition from “Weather Monitoring” to “Integrated Life-Security,” essential for protecting the 247 billion labor hours at risk from rising temperatures.
Standardizing “Heat-Health Pathways”: The collaboration between IMD and the Climate–Health Desk provides a template for how meteorological departments can directly drive public health outcomes.
Bypassing the “Knowledge-Action Gap”: By providing tailored thresholds, India can bypass the limitations of generic national warnings and deliver 1-km resolution alerts that reflect local micro-climates as identified in the MoES roadmap.
Operationalizing Heat Action Plans (HAPs): The $11.5 million investment from Rockefeller and Wellcome directly supports the scaling of district-level HAPs, ensuring that even the most vulnerable communities have an “Actionable Knowledge” toolkit.
Federal Productivity Resilience: Addressing the $194 billion annual income loss ensures that India’s 2022-23 base year revision captures the real growth potential by mitigating the impact of heat-induced labor capacity reduction.
Implementation Fidelity via transdisciplinary science: Moving beyond business-as-usual public health ensures that Mission Mausam’s radar networks are integrated with hospital preparedness for 50°C+ pre-monsoon surges.
Relevant Question for Policy Stakeholders: How should IMD and IISER Pune utilize the Scientific Research Consortium to develop specific heat-thresholds for high-resolution urban clusters in Mumbai and Delhi?
Follow the full update here: WMO: New Initiatives to Address Extreme Heat in South Asia