Mayors of Paris, Milan, and Phoenix: “Heat is our new public health emergency”

The mayors of Paris, Milan, and Phoenix met in London during a heatwave that forced the cancellation of major climate talks. Their shared conclusion: extreme heat is no longer a weather event—it is a public health crisis that demands city-level action. Speaking between disrupted sessions of London Climate Action Week, the three leaders compared strategies for protecting vulnerable residents, communicating risk, and redesigning neighborhoods for hotter summers. “We are learning from each other,” they said in a joint statement. “These climate policies are also public health measures.” The meeting came as record temperatures across the UK and Europe led several official climate events to be suspended or cancelled, according to the BBC. The mayors—Emmanuel Grégoire of Paris, Giuseppe Sala of Milan, and Kate Gallego of Phoenix—focused on practical steps: identifying who is most at risk during heat spikes, improving warning systems, and reshaping urban design to reduce heat retention. Their message is blunt: cities must treat heat with the same urgency as any other health threat.