This story is part of Global Voices’ May 2026 Spotlight, “Global crisis, local solutions.” This series will offer stories of resistance and successful climate action, insight into how communities in the Global South are fighting back against the crisis, analysis of what this might mean for future generations, and more. You can support this coverage by donating here.
In pursuit of climate justice, Hong Kong environmental groups work with community and grassroots organizations to advocate for safety nets and inclusive climate action to help the vulnerable withstand heat hazards.
Hong Kong Observatory warned earlier this year that the city would see abnormally high temperatures in 2026 with the return of El Niño conditions, characterized by warm sea-surface temperatures and super-typhoons that bring intense rainfall and flash floods in summer.
While Hong Kong is less affected by natural disasters like flooding thanks to its well-developed infrastructure, the city’s residents are often exposed to extreme heatwaves during summer, and the most vulnerable are outdoor workers who have to perform heavy physical labor, and low-income and elderly households who can’t afford to pay for air-conditioning in the densely populated concrete jungle. In recent years, heat hazards have been worsening, as very hot days have become more frequent.
Inadequate social inclusion in HK’s climate action
Since China ratified the Paris Agreement in September 2016, Hong Kong followed suit, but at a slower pace. The city’s current target is to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, with an action plan spanning major strategic areas, including energy, construction, waste reduction, conservation, and climate adaptation. Yet its approach is technical and investment-based, failing to recognize the need to redistribute resources and advance climate justice for the vulnerable.
Executive Director, Ivy Leung of CarbonCare InnoLab (CCIL), a climate justice NGO, stressed in an email interview with Global Voices on the need to “protect those who are hit hardest yet have contributed the least [to the current climate crisis]” and to develop an empowering approach to draw grassroots participation:
Climate action cannot rely on infrastructure and policy alone. Hong Kong also needs stronger capacity building across society so that communities, schools, NGOs, businesses, and frontline service providers are better equipped to understand climate risks and respond effectively. Building resilience means investing in people’s knowledge, skills, and ability to act…”
Prudence Yeung, a Greenpeace Hong Kong campaigner on climate change, also pointed out in an interview with Global Voices that the Hong Kong government had yet to acknowledge the existence of vulnerable groups in relation to climate change in its policy papers.
The green group criticized the government’s 2026 fiscal budget for focusing on green finance and infrastructure investment while providing “zero support” for climate-vulnerable groups. Its statement said:
Greenpeace is very disappointed that comprehensive, people-centred climate adaptation strategies and measures were not included in the government’s public fiscal planning”
Hong Kong’s climate-vulnerable groups
The most vulnerable group to weather-related health crises is the elderly, as heat stress can exacerbate underlying illnesses among the aged population, such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. In 2024, about 20 percent, or approximately 1.5 million, of the city population is aged 65 or above, with 236,100 living alone. Fortunately, the Hong Kong welfare system provides moderate support for the elderly, and the two major power supply corporations have also recently rolled out significant discounts for impoverished elderly households.
Similar safety nets, however, are unavailable for the low-income working class who suffer from heat stress in substandard housing and heat stroke when working outdoors. In 2025, Hong Kong logged 53 very hot days with temperatures at or above 33 degrees Celsius and four extremely hot days with temperatures at or above 35 degrees Celsius. Humidity is often above 90 percent during Hong Kong’s summer, making the apparent temperatures even higher.
The indoor setting of the urban poor further inflames the heat. Since 2021, CCIL has worked with a community organization, the Kwai Chung Subdivided Units Neighborhood Association, to support vulnerable communities in implementing energy-saving and adaptation measures, such as shifting to more efficient appliances, improving ventilation, supporting neighbors during heatwaves, and developing co-created small-scale resilience solutions based on local needs.
The project collected community-based evidence through a survey of 31 subdivided flats last year and showed the public that temperatures measured in the substandard units were 1 to 10 degrees Celsius higher than the city’s average between July 3 and July 2025. About 74 percent of residents report sleepless nights due to extreme heat. Many residents refrained from turning on their air conditioners due to high electricity costs, as their shared electricity meters bar them from receiving the government and corporate electricity subsidies. Currently, about 220,000 residents live in subdivided flats in the city.
Although the government has designated 19 centers for people to take refuge from heatwaves, Greenpeace HK and social inclusion NGO ImpactHK’s joint investigation found that the hot weather shelters are underused due to inappropriate locations, insufficient publicity, a lack of privacy and security measures, and short opening hours. Prudence Yeung explained,
While the city has relatively good hardware, the software and management are inadequate to address people’s needs. The cooling centers are not equipped to let people have a good sleep.”
Ivy Leung, on the other hand, stressed the significance of grassroots engagement in building climate resilience:
Climate resilience is not only about infrastructure or technology. It is also about empowering people, strengthening neighbourhood support, and making sure the transition to a low-carbon future is fair and inclusive.”
Heat stress as a health crisis
The summer heatwaves also caused a health crisis among outdoor workers. In 2023, a survey conducted by Greenpeace HK and the HK Catholic Commission for Labor Affairs showed that 62 percent of Hong Kong street cleaners and construction workers had experienced symptoms of heatstroke, such as dizziness, a lack of energy, breathing difficulty, and a rapid heartbeat, within three months, and half of them said they had suffered from heatstroke at least once a week. The Labor Department recorded about 30 cases of heatstroke at work per year in 2023 and 2024. Since heatstroke has not been recognized as an occupational disease in Hong Kong, many cases have not been reported.
Hong Kong only rolled out a guideline on the prevention of heat stroke at work in 2023, which later evolved into a three-tier (amber, red and black) warning system that instructs employers to adjust hourly work-rest schedules or suspend work that requires heavy physical demands. However, employer compliance remains an issue, as the guideline is not statutory law, and there are no direct fines for ignoring the coloured alerts. Between May and October 2024, the Labour Department issued 1031 warnings to non-compliant employers; thus far, there has been no prosecution related to the heat-stress warning, even though the authority can prosecute offenders under the Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance.
Moreover, the single heat-detection station at King’s Park did not capture the microclimate and the heat stress of the densely populated urban districts. Following rigorous research and surveys by a coalition of environmental and labor groups on microclimates across different urban settings, the government eventually refined heat stress monitoring by expanding data collection to 10 locations earlier this year.
Given the nature of outdoor work, it is very difficult to monitor employer compliance, local NGOs, including Oxfam HK, thus urge the government to further refine the current monitoring system by establishing a workplace-based heat stress index, motivating employers to let their workers wear mobile heat-detection devices, and to include heat stress in the list of occupational diseases under Hong Kong’s Employees’ Compensation Ordinance. Even though heatstroke is on China’s occupational disease list, authorities in the special administrative region rejected this demand in 2022 on the grounds that heat-related sickness stems from environmental factors and has no direct link to the nature of work or work-specific conditions.
But more medical experts have argued that the city should treat heat hazards as a public health crisis. A recently published Hong Kong University study finds that heat caused 1,455 to 3,238 excess deaths between 2014 and 2023, and that heatwaves now rank among the top ten causes of death in Hong Kong, with mortality rates comparable to those of diabetes. Last month, the World Health Organization also reinstated that “heat is an important environmental and occupational health hazard.”
Let’s hope the experts’ alarm provides more grounds for climate justice advocacy.
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