RMI India Foundation at Mumbai Climate Week: Heat, Housing, and Carbon Nexus

Indian cities are facing a converging challenge at the intersection of extreme heat, housing, and carbon emissions. Rapid urbanisation and the scale-up of affordable housing have driven construction practices that prioritise speed and upfront costs over thermal performance and overall efficiency. As a result, large segments of urban housing, particularly for low- and middle-income households, experience poor thermal comfort, high indoor heat stress, and a growing dependence on mechanical cooling. At the same time, the use of material-intensive, thermally inefficient materials locks in high embodied carbon and contributes to heat entrapment within buildings and neighbourhoods, driving higher long-term space-cooling energy demand and associated operational emissions.

Shifting toward thermally comfortable, low-carbon housing can reduce indoor heat stress and neighbourhood heat build-up, reduce future cooling demand and household energy expenditure, and
avoid long-term carbon lock-in arising from both embodied emissions during the construction phase and decades of operational energy use.

This convening seeks to position housing not as a passive recipient of climate impacts, but as a strategic entry point to advance thermal comfort for millions of people, accelerate innovation, and unlock scalable investment pathways in Indian cities.