Collective action for extreme heat resilience: Strengthening community resilience to extreme heat through partnerships in Greater Western Sydney and beyond (2023-2026)

This report presents the impact of the Urban Climate Resilience Program (UCRP) in Australia between 2023 and 2026, focusing on strengthening extreme heat resilience in vulnerable communities across Greater Western Sydney. Led by Australian Red Cross in partnership with Zurich Australia and IFRC, the programme combined community action, organisational capacity building, awareness raising and cross-sector collaboration. The report draws on evidence generated through the Climate Resilience Measurement for Communities (CRMC), a data-driven framework that examined resilience across human, social, physical, natural and financial dimensions using household surveys, key informant interviews, focus groups and secondary data sources.

The report finds that extreme heat is a complex, systemic challenge requiring collective action across communities, governments, researchers, civil society, businesses and humanitarian actors. Outcomes included more than 24,000 people positively impacted through community programming, more than 100,000 people positively impacted through partnerships and influencing, and a national Extreme Heat Awareness Day campaign that reached 6.8 million people in 2026. The report highlights policy influence, community preparedness, applied research, and partnership-building, and recommends deepening community resilience, scaling partnership models, and embedding heat resilience in policy, planning and investment systems.