Cape Town has become the first South African city to have a Chief Heat Officer (CHO).

Cities such as Los Angeles and Athens already have CHOs.

A CHO’s job is to drive heat awareness communication and interventions as cities become hotter, with more extreme heat-related events unfolding as the climate changes.

Densely built urban areas with a large amount of concrete and metal can absorb and trap heat, creating what are called urban heat islands.

As a result, cities are becoming hotter, which poses serious health problems, especially for vulnerable community members, such as the young and the very old.

Cities around the world are now appointing CHOs, who aim to work together to share knowledge and advocate for funding to cool down cities.

Cape Town’s newly appointed CHO is Albert Ferreira, who is also the city’s Resilience and Climate Change manager.

In the hottest months, many areas in Cape Town experience temperatures hotter than 35 °C.

The city introduced its first Beat the Heat programme in 2024, focusing on vulnerable communities located in regions often experiencing summer temperatures hotter than 35 °C, such as Atlantis, Mamre, Dunoon, Joe Slovo and Sir Lowry’s Pass Village.

However, the highest temperature recorded for 2024 was 44.6 °C at the Royal Yacht Club in the Foreshore area – the current highest temperature on record for Cape Town.

The Beat the Heat programme was developed as part of Cape Town’s Heat Action Plan and it is being implemented by a number of departments, including Risk and Resilience, Environmental Management and Disaster Risk Management.

“The city’s Climate Change Action Plan addresses various climate hazards, including droughts, fire, flooding, surges, storms and heat waves facing the city,” says Ferreira.

“The specific focus on extreme heat as a growing public health and urban planning challenge highlights the need to treat it with the same urgency as other climate hazards.”

Cape Town in 2024 became a member of the international City Champions for Heat Action (CCHA) initiative.

Cape Town is one of three African cities to join the CCHA, with other members including Freetown, Kisumu County, Athens, Melbourne, Dhaka North, Monterrey, Santiago and Miami-Dade County.

Ferreira’s appointment comes as part of this international membership and he now joins the other CHOs located across the world.

The United Nations issued a call to action on extreme heat in July 2024, asking the international community to act on three critical areas – caring for vulnerable groups, protecting workers, and boosting the resilience of economies and societies.