Cool surface solutions for climate adaptation and mitigation

Leading scientific agencies, including the European Union’s Copernicus Earth Observation Programme, have confirmed that 2024 was the hottest year on record. The consequences are dire: Extreme heat is the leading climate-related driver of human mortality in cities.

 

One problem is that urban built environments consist primarily of low-albedo materials that absorb the sun’s energy and radiate it as heat, amplifying the urban heat island (UHI) effect. Research over nearly four decades has demonstrated that high-albedo cool surfaces (cool roofs, walls, and pavements) offer multiple cooling benefits. They reflect more of the sun’s energy back to space, reducing local UHI effects and increasing global climate change mitigation through negative radiative forcing. In these ways, cool surfaces are unusual because they offer benefits for both climate adaptation and mitigation. By lowering ambient temperatures, cool surfaces can also reduce heat stress and improve air quality, directly translating to public health benefits such as decreased heat-related illnesses and improved respiratory health.

 

In this presentation, the Los Angeles-based nonprofit Climate Resolve will share California policies and projects to advance cool surfaces. It will present peer-reviewed research from its community cooling project in an 18-block neighborhood in Los Angeles and the work of its Shine On research initiative on cool surfaces. Climate Resolve invites policymakers, researchers, and practitioners to join this session.