THE International Red Cross and the United Nations are urging people and governments to prepare better for heat waves like recent ones from Sacramento, California, to Somalia to Sichuan, China, that could take many lives in the future.

UN humanitarian aid agency OCHA and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies issued their first joint report today, chronicling the devastation of past scorchers and laying out ways to prepare for and limit the damage of future ones.

The report said 38 heat waves accounted for the deaths of more than 70,000 people worldwide from 2010 to 2019 — a likely underestimate — on top of the fallout on lives and livelihoods.

On the checklist of steps, the two organisations say some humanitarian groups are testing the rollout of emergency housing, “green” roofs, cooling centres and changes to school calendars to mitigate the impact of heat waves, which many scientists say have become more frequent because of human-made climate change.

Beyond that, governments were encouraged to boost early-warning systems about heat waves and give more training and funding to local responders who often are first on site when heat waves hit.

The agencies say better co-ordination between humanitarian groups, development organisations and weather experts is needed, too.

The UN and OCHA warn in particular about the unequal impact on developing countries and cited figures that Bangladesh, for example, experienced as much as a 20 per cent increase in deaths on heat wave days compared with an average day.