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Edith Lin

Theodora Yu

Yung, an elderly Hong Kong resident, has spent hours hanging out at a neighbourhood shopping centre in Kwai Chung all summer.
But he has not been going there to shop, instead taking refuge from the sweltering heat in the mall’s soothing air-conditioned arcade.
The retiree, who lives in a 100 sq ft subdivided flat with his wife, is reluctant to use the air conditioner for long periods to avoid a hefty electricity bill, despite the hot and stuffy weather in recent weeks.
“There have been more instances this year when I have felt dizzy, with a tightness in my chest, inside my flat,” said Yung, who is in his seventies. He turns on the air conditioner at night for about an hour before going to sleep, but often awakes at around 1am, covered in sweat.

Yung is among many underprivileged residents whose health and sleep cycles have been disrupted by extreme heat, as Hong Kong recorded a scorching 36.9 degrees Celsius (98.4 Fahrenheit) at the Observatory’s headquarters in Tsim Sha Tsui on August 9, the highest since records began in 1884.
His experience underlines questions about the city’s climate resilience, as heatwaves are predicted to occur more frequently and to affect larger areas surrounding the Pearl River Delta, including Hong Kong, by 2040, according to a study published in a scientific journal in May.
Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu highlighted the worsening situation at a recent consultation session for the city’s first five-year plan, to be unveiled next month, pledging to improve urban management and unite efforts to tackle extreme weather events and disasters.
Community organisations, weather experts and urban planning professionals said strengthening the city’s heat-stress warning system, improving urban designs and shifting the mindset of policymakers were key to helping residents adapt to the new normal and making extreme weather less unbearable.


Heatwaves triggered as early as April by 2040
Intensified heat stress from Hong Kong’s hot and humid climate was “a risk projected to worsen”, said Jimmy Fung Chi-hung, chair professor of the environment and sustainability division at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST).
In July, an 11-year-old boy died after presenting with symptoms of heatstroke, including vomiting and fainting, at the end of a 400-metre (437-yard) training run at Tseung Kwan O Sports Ground.
Fung warned that the city would face more frequent and prolonged heatwaves by 2040.
Heatwaves are typically defined as prolonged periods of excessively high temperatures, often with severe consequences for human health, ecosystems and infrastructure. In Hong Kong’s urban areas, the median daily temperature during heatwaves typically hits a high of about 33 degrees.
Citing his study published in the journal Weather and Climate Extremes in May, Fung said his research team found that heatwaves would become more frequent and extensive in the 2040s, with such occurrences beginning as early as April.
To make their predictions, researchers studied local weather patterns using data from 18 global climate models from countries including Australia, Canada, Germany, the United States and China.




Fung said the core heatwave season would also last longer, with extreme heat on a near-daily basis between June and August in most years.
By the 2090s, the main heatwave season would further lengthen, starting earlier in May and extending to cover some days in September.
Fung projected that the number of days in a year repeatedly affected by heatwaves would jump from an annual average of 14 days in the 2010s to 101 in the 2040s.
Such days are estimated to occur across at least eight out of 10 years for each decade, marking the transformation from what was once a peak summer hazard into a “persistent warm-season threat”, Fung said.
Is extreme heat a natural disaster?
Unlike typhoons and rainstorms, which Hong Kong authorities manage with pre-event preparation, emergency response plans and cross-department protocols, extreme heat is not classified as a natural disaster and there is currently no comparable action plan to mitigate its impacts, according to urban climate expert Professor Ren Chao of the University of Hong Kong (HKU).
Yet the urgency of the problem was underlined by an HKU paper in 2024, which estimated that the 18 heatwaves recorded in the city between 2014 and 2023 had each produced about 93 “excess deaths”, resulting in 1,677 additional fatalities over that period.
Currently, the Observatory’s heat-related alerts include a special advisory for temperatures reaching 28 to 32 degrees, a very hot weather warning for temperatures reaching 33 degrees, and “prolonged heat” and “extremely hot” special alerts.
Once a very hot weather warning is issued, government departments remind the public and employers to be mindful of health risks and open temporary heat shelters.

The city also has a Heat Stress at Work Warning system, which requires employers to arrange additional rest periods for workers. However, the formula that triggers the warnings is now being reviewed as the record temperatures earlier this month exposed its failure to reflect the extreme conditions.
Ren said the government should thoroughly consider factors related to extreme heat and build them into their policy formulations.
Where are heat shelters?
Ren called on the government to study the potential challenges facing residents of each district under climate change, then devise corresponding design solutions and strategies to mitigate them.
For more immediate measures, pop-up cooling community centres or heat shelters remained essential, she said.
Alongside eight community centres opening for heat refuge during operating hours, the city currently runs 19 temporary heat shelters converted from community halls whenever the very hot weather warning is in force. These 19 shelters will run overnight if the warning is still in force at 4.30pm.
Between August 5 and 13, the warning was issued for more than 204 hours, and the 19 shelters served between 160 and 250 residents each day.
But Kwai Chung resident Yung said he was not familiar with the government’s initiatives and had not heard of the nearest shelter, located in Kwai Shing Community Hall.
In any case, it would take him half an hour to get there, which he said was “simply too far”.


Terry Wong Chi-ho, senior manager of local emergency response at Hong Kong Red Cross, called for more shelters at more convenient locations, especially in densely populated areas such as Yau Tsim Mong and Kowloon City, where heat-related risks are the highest.
“While districts like North and Yuen Long … are hotter during daytime with fewer shades, Yau Tsim Mong and Sham Shui Po are the two districts most affected by hot nights, due to the heat island effect,” he said.
The charity has been working with labour groups, churches, non-profit organisations and small shops to free up spaces as pop-up cooling stations, especially in these high-risk areas, allowing residents to replenish their water supplies and cool down.
“Users need not just physical space, but also to be able to eat inside, charge their mobile devices [and] take a shower,” he said.
Ultimately, residents preferred cooling down in the sanctuary of their own homes, so authorities could consider providing home appliances and heat subsidies, Wong said.

A subdivided home tenant in his eighties, surnamed Chan, who lives in a 100 sq ft flat in Mong Kok, found the heat slightly more bearable at home after the Red Cross provided him with a cooling mattress topper and circulation fan.
Along with a wall fan, the equipment helped cool down his body and improve ventilation, as Chan kept his windows firmly shut due to rodent infestations in nearby areas.
“I dare not open the windows as the rats could come in,” he said.
In Singapore, the government offers quarterly rebates to residents living in eligible public housing to offset their utility bills. It also provides climate vouchers of up to S$400 (US$315) for families to buy energy and water-efficient appliances.
Green pockets, urban shade and street fans
Revamping Hong Kong’s greening strategy, as well as its building and street designs, could also mitigate heat and offer shade to the public and outdoor workers, urban planning experts said.
Although 70 per cent of Hong Kong is covered by green spaces, residents were surrounded by only about 35 per cent of greenery within 500 metres of their home on average, according to data collected in 2020 for a HKU-led study.
Bin Chen, an assistant professor at HKU’s division of landscape architecture who led the research, said efforts should focus on providing smaller and more distributed greenery to improve everyday exposure, such as street trees and shaded routes connecting homes with community facilities.
But according to Anthony Cheung, vice-president of the Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design, the city’s existing design and building rules and approval procedures do not facilitate building more canopies, covered walkways and footbridges, which can mitigate the discomfort for residents on very hot days.
Under the Buildings Ordinance, balconies and canopies cannot extend beyond three metres or 10 per cent of the street width, whichever is shorter.
Cheung said building designs under the rule could not provide sufficient shade for pedestrians to seek shelter from the sun and rain.

He added that only covered walkways connecting a building’s main entrance to the site boundary and main entrances between buildings could be exempted from gross floor area calculation.
By contrast, Singapore mandated covered walkways in all developments in designated key areas.
Cheung acknowledged the government’s attempts to incentivise private developers to build sheltered pedestrian links, including footbridges, by waiving land premiums under certain conditions.
However, he noted that approval for the scheme, launched in 2017, was a “very long process” and proposals were subject to different tests to assess their public benefit.
He also pointed out that scattered developments in certain neighbourhoods, such as Mong Kok, were an obstacle to building an extensive shaded network, and the government might at best consider building covered walkways on major streets.
Cheung, who is also a director of architecture firm Ronald Lu and Partners, suggested installing energy-efficient facilities in Hong Kong to cool the environment. He cited the example of Air Tree, a tree-like structure designed by his company’s scientific arm, Behave, that provides greenery and shade while using solar panels to power fans.
In Japan, cooling mist systems have helped cool down commuters at bus stops and visitors at parks and plazas during record-breaking heatwaves. A Japanese firm also sells the Do Hiemon Box, a “human fridge” kept at 15 degrees, which offers outdoor workers quick relief from the heat.

Theresa Yeung, president of the Hong Kong Institute of Planners, said the city should replace concrete structures with permeable materials to ease increased flooding that came with more frequent rainstorms triggered by global warming.
She proposed installing stormwater storage tanks beneath small parks and adopting nature-based solutions such as Rotterdam’s water plazas in the Netherlands. Designed like a storage tank, such facilities are generally used as public spaces and retain rainwater to manage the drainage load on sewage systems during storms.
Acknowledging the financial cost of such proposals, Yeung suggested that authorities could leverage market forces to implement climate-resilient designs in new development and urban renewal projects.
She said the Development Bureau’s bonus plot ratio scheme, to be launched next month, was a timely introduction.
The scheme will grant developers redeveloping old residential buildings in seven designated districts an extra 20 per cent of gross floor area or an equivalent premium value to offset payment in the redevelopment or any land transactions in the city.
It encourages developers to provide socially beneficial facilities and adopt planning that benefits the broader community.
Yeung suggested that the government mandate climate-resilient designs in relevant residential projects and eventually expand the scope to commercial buildings.
“Climate-resilient designs not only help the government but also residents by protecting their properties and assets,” she said.
The bureau said the government required public works projects to incorporate greening elements in their planning and development stages to deliver quality landscape.
The Buildings Department said it had been supporting the development of a sustainable built environment by imposing relevant requirements, and would continue to review and propose revisions to building standards as needed.
The Drainage Services Department said locating stormwater storage facilities beneath recreational space was a practical application, such as those underneath Tai Hang Tung Playground and Happy Valley Recreation Ground.
Taking urban resilience forward
To develop the best policy solutions and infrastructure support, experts said the government and society at large must first adopt the right mindset.
Leung Wing-mo, a former assistant director at the Hong Kong Observatory, said every resident and institution should adopt a “forward-thinking mindset” to build the city’s climate resilience.
The case of tenant Chan, who faced rodent infestations and heat stress, showed that social and environmental issues rarely occurred in isolation, he said.
“We hope the government can take a comprehensive approach [in tackling extreme heat], taking into full consideration the environmental issues that cover air pollution, extreme heat and ventilation altogether,” Leung said.
Winston Chow, an urban climate professor at Singapore Management University’s College of Integrative Studies, said urban resilience should be a priority for governments in the face of increased risks to people, economies and infrastructure.

As early as 1991, Singapore included climate adaptation strategies in its long-term planning.
In 2010, the National Climate Change Secretariat was formed under the Prime Minister’s Office to develop and implement policies and strategies to tackle climate change.
“The strategy is not based on one governmental agency or department. These sorts of issues cut across different ministries, and they are coordinated by the Prime Minister’s Office,” Chow said.
He said the approach was helpful as the office coordinated issues among government agencies and departments, which often did not communicate or convey their interests and concerns to one another.
He also stressed the importance of public education, which helped generations of Singaporeans support government policies.
Herman Yiu Kwan-ho, programme officer at Hong Kong’s CarbonCare InnoLab, noted that education and outreach were essential to empowering residents to tackle the heat.
Simple home-based remedies such as reducing clutter by removing old cardboard or clothing promoted better air circulation and cooled spaces, while using insulated curtains and cleaning one’s air conditioners regularly also improved energy efficiency, he said.
Wong from Red Cross said extreme heat could cause heatstroke, hospitalisation or even death, but so far insufficient statistics had been compiled to identify definitive trends.
“We believe that the general public still underestimates the impact caused by this extreme heat,” he said.
“Extreme hot weather is a type of disaster … [It] not only [causes] discomfort, but is also an invisible killer.”


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Hong Kong society

As Hong Kong faces more heatwaves, what must be done to make the city more resilient?

Illustration: Davies Christian

Yung often seeks shelter at a nearby shopping centre as his flat in Kwai Tsing is too hot and stuffy when temperatures surge in Hong Kong. Photo: Edmond So

HKU urban climate expert Ren Chao says Hong Kong lacks a comprehensive plan to deal with the short-term and long-term consequences of sustained hot weather. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Chan keeps the windows of his subdivided flat shut because of rat infestations in his neighbourhood, a problem that exacerbates the heat he faces indoors. Photo: Edmond So

Anthony Cheung, vice-president of the Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design, says the city’s existing design and building rules do not support building more cooling structures such as canopies and covered walkways. Photo: Dickson Lee

An AI-generated image of the Air Tree, a structure being developed to provide greenery and shade while using solar panels to power fans in public spaces. Photo: Ronald Lu and Partners/Behave

Climate scientists predict that the number of days in a year “repeatedly affected by heatwaves” in Hong Kong will jump from an annual average of 14 days in the 2010s to 101 in the 2040s. Photo: Karma Lo

A woman struggles in the sweltering heat in Hong Kong amid record-high temperatures in August. Photo: Karma Lo

An elderly woman takes shelter from the heat at a shopping centre in Sham Shui Po. Older residents are increasingly vulnerable to Hong Kong’s extreme temperatures during the summer months. Photo: Dickson Lee

78% of low-income elderly Hongkongers report heat-related distress, survey finds

Nearly 80 per cent of low-income elderly people reported physical or mental distress during periods of extreme heat, according to a survey. Photo: Karma Lo

About 78 per cent of respondents reported experiencing physical discomfort because of high temperatures. Photo: Edmond So

Labour unions call for mandatory heatstroke-prevention equipment for workers

Unions want Hong Kong employers to be legally required to provide outdoor workers with protective gear during extreme heat. Photo: Karma Lo

Chau Sze-kit, chairman of the Hong Kong Construction Industry Employees General Union, says employers should be required to provide fan-cooled jackets, as they were for safety helmets. Photo: Sun Yeung

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Hong Kong

Health & Environment

From supporting vulnerable residents to revamping laws and public spaces, experts say city must adopt comprehensive climate resilience strategy


From supporting vulnerable residents to revamping laws and public spaces, experts say city must adopt comprehensive climate resilience strategy.


.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}From supporting vulnerable residents to revamping laws and public spaces, experts say city must adopt comprehensive climate resilience strategy

From supporting vulnerable residents to revamping laws and public spaces, experts say city must adopt comprehensive climate resilience strategy