Scaling Climate-Resilient Housing to address Extreme Heat and Flooding: Finance, Innovation, and Community-Led Action

With 2.8 billion people living in inadequate housing, the climate crisis demands urgent, integrated solutions. This session presents transformative models for inclusive, scalable resilient housing solutions, highlighting high-impact projects from the global South and linking to the self-construction workshop from the GlobalABC Summit .

Build Change presents the Incremental Climate Adaptation Loan, enabling housing upgrades that cut indoor temperatures by 2.4°C and electricity use by 16% at just $2.1/m² and an example from Mozambique, on retrofitting homes for cyclone and flood resilience. In Kenya, CA, IIED and SDI Kenya address the “invisible” threat of extreme heat in informal settlements with community-collected data, to inform the selection of small-scale interventions and municipal Heat Action Plans as well as examples from CA's work retrofitting schools and health clinics in Ethiopia and Uganda for heat and flooding. From India and beyond, the Roof Over Our Heads methodology and success in women-led upgrading.

This session provides a roadmap for using local data, micro-equity, and localized engineering to transform existing shelters into lasting, climate-smart protection.