Improving the resilience of refugee camps to rising temperatures

Refugee camps are a much-overlooked microcosm of the climate change challenges faced in the broader built environment, with needs for the adaptation of buildings and a wide range of infrastructure to cope with extreme weather events. Rising seasonal ambient temperatures and longer, more intense heatwaves make it crucial to improve shelters and systems for food, vaccine and medicine supply. Settlements for refugees often lack a foundation based on the principles of sustainability, adaptation and the building of capacity for resilience, leaving them vulnerable to climate change. Addressing these issues requires engineering-based solutions, international cooperation, and collaborative development of comprehensive inclusive strategies for adapting camps in the context of humanitarian responses.

Site selection and layout.

The determination of a camp’s location is a basic starting point for addressing the challenges of escalating temperatures and heat extremes. Sites with potential to utilise passive cooling, such as those with natural shade, predominant cool breezes, or adjacent to sources of cool water, should be prioritised where possible. Some options for natural cooling can be easily implemented at the construction phase. For example, incorporating green spaces within a camp can serve the dual purpose of providing shade to residents and enhancing overall air quality. Additionally, orientating tents and shelters to minimise solar gain and take advantage of capturing breezes for natural ventilation can contribute significantly to cooling effects.

Shelter design.

When designing shelters for camps, utilising heat-resilient and reflective materials will help reduce the potential for internal overheating. Indeed, white roofs are one of the simplest and most cost-effective ways to adapt to heat impacts^[1], with many proven practical applications around the world. Additionally, incorporating proper ventilation, using windcatchers^[2] and high-level windows to capture breezes, as well as cross-ventilation systems, can significantly improve air circulation within the shelter, not only providing cooling but also helping to mitigate against the spread of disease and illnesses.

In addition to passive and natural cooling techniques, the provision of active (mechanical) cooling can help camp residents cope with high temperatures, particularly in communal areas such as school rooms and healthcare facilities. This typically involves the installation of solutions such as fans and air conditioning (AC). However, excessive reliance on active cooling methods can have adverse consequences through an increased demand for energy resources, which are often scarce within a camp environment and primarily fossil fuels based, which complicates efforts to reduce the camp’s carbon footprint and improve its sustainability.

To help minimise energy consumption and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the most efficient AC units available should be deployed. Further, the use of renewable energy technologies, such as solar panels, wind turbines and small-scale biogas from waste plants, combined with energy storage technologies to power essential facilities, is a more sustainable approach. Camp-based training programs such as, for example, 'Each One Teach One – Train to Earn', where refugee youth and women are provided with technical skills to operate solar products, can support these initiatives ^[3].

Food, vaccines and medicine supply and storage

Beyond shelter, food is a primary requirement in camps and ensuring adequate cold storage for temperature sensitive perishable produce, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, dairy, fish and meat products, as well as establishing temperature-controlled supply chains for food delivery, is crucial to avoiding large volumes of food wastage. Within the context of humanitarian aid, avoiding the loss of such a precious resource as food is a moral imperative that will become even more critical as the world becomes warmer, crop yields and livestock productivity reduce, and climate refugee numbers increase dramatically^[4]. As with the cooling of shelters, incorporating perishable food supply and storage into camp design needs to address carbon footprint and sustainability issues, through first prioritising the use of passive and natural cooling approaches, as well as technologies that harness renewable energy sources, before resorting to solutions based on electricity generation from fossil fuels. The reality today is, however, that very little consideration is given within humanitarian aid programmes to the provision of sustainable cold storage within camps or how these should be integrated into sustainable food supply cold chains.

Health protection is also a priority for refugees and providing well-equipped healthcare facilities with the medical equipment, resources and personnel needed to provide front-line preventative care (for example immunisation against viruses and diseases), as well as manage on-site illnesses including heat-stress^[5], is a core component of humanitarian aid. Cooling is essential for storing temperature sensitive vaccines and medicines, as well as for delivering them to a camp. However, as in the case of food supply and storage, there is little evidence of sustainability principles being considered in the design and implementation of this vital infrastructure. More needs to be done to raise awareness of this issues and drive the development and adoption of innovative solutions, such as SureChill’s solar powered ice-based refrigeration technology^[6] and Zipline’s drone-based vaccine delivery system^[7].

Inclusiveness, cooperation, and collaborations

Engaging residents actively in the planning and decision-making processes related to camp adaptations is crucial to building capacity for resilience and achieving a site that is suited to their specific needs. Additionally, conducting awareness campaigns and educational programs that address the risks associated with high temperatures and heatwaves, as well as effective coping strategies, with the participation of both displaced populations and host communities, can prove highly beneficial. Indeed, these requirements align closely with the COP29 framework for action^[8] which calls for an inclusive process for inclusive outcomes - working to ensure everyone’s voices are heard and perspectives are considered and included, so that inclusive outcomes based on shared solutions are delivered.

International collaboration will be instrumental in facilitating the successful adaptation of refugee camps to the higher seasonal ambient temperatures and heat extremes anticipated in climate change projections. This includes governments seeking assistance and expertise from international organisations, NGOs, and other countries experienced in climate adaptation and refugee camp management. Domestically, it will involve national governments fostering collaboration with their local authorities and host communities to jointly build resilience.

Adapting camps to climate change-related heat extremes is a multidimensional effort that requires careful planning, resources, and cooperation among various stakeholders to deliver a successful outcome in the face of increasingly challenging weather conditions. By working together, we can make real progress towards addressing the challenges in this much overlooked but important area for adaptation.