Are
you on the board of a not-for-profit organisation that provides
social or affordable rental housing? Do you have a residential
property portfolio or do you just own a second home your rent out?
Then
this post is written for you to consider.
Is
the rental property or properties you own or manage capable of
killing your tenants?
ACOSS Heat Study 2024,
1 March 2024, excerpt:
Hotter
days and homes with poor energy
performance create hot boxes that
cannot be cooled
People
variously described living in hot homes that they cannot cool as
“awful”, “unliveable”, “miserable”, “unbearable”,
“torture” and “a prison.”
Of
the 1007 people who completed the survey, most (80.4%) said their
home gets too hot in
the summer.
Over
half the people surveyed (56.7%) said they struggle to cool their
home.
At
a state and Territory level, more than half of people in Western
Australia (67.2%), Queensland
(66.1%), Australian Capital Territory (64.3%) and New South Wales
(55.0%) said
their home gets too hot and they struggle to cool it. Nearly half of
the people surveyed
in Victoria (45.8%), South Australia (45.7%) and the Northern
Territory (45.5%) also
had this experience. Tasmania was the only jurisdiction where all
people surveyed said
either their home was comfortable, or they are able to cool it when
hot.
Some
groups were more likely to struggle to cool their home:
• people
renting in social housing (78.3%)
• people
receiving income support (60.8%)
• people
renting directly from a real estate agency (68.6%) or landlord
(56.7%).
People
in social or private rental properties have very limited control to
make changes to their
home to make it more energy efficient and resistant to extreme temperatures. They have
limited control to install insulation, draft proofing, shading, fans
or air conditioners, regardless
of whether or not they can afford these changes. Of the 558 people
living in social
housing or private rental, most (69.7%) said they struggle to cool
their home. [my yellow highlighting]
“I
rent and there is no air con. Though I have fans, that can’t
compete with high temps.
My
apartment is north-west facing at top of the block.”
-
Judith, New South Wales
People
who indicated that they were in insecure housing (3%) also spoke of
having limited control to cool their home when it gets too hot.
Healthy Futures, media release, 26 March 2024, excerpt:
Heat-related
illnesses kill thousands of Australians every year (1) and roughly
one-third of these deaths can be attributed to climate change (2,3).
Heatwaves increase the risk of dehydration, kidney failure, heart
attacks and strokes. Older people, children, people with pre-existing
health conditions and people unable to afford air conditioning are
most vulnerable. [my yellow highlighting]
Currently,
many social housing dwellings are poor quality and prone to
temperature extremes (4-6). A 2023 survey of people on low incomes by
the Australian Council of Social Services found that 94.5% avoided
using air conditioning because it is too expensive (7). Solar panels
can significantly reduce air conditioning costs, and while 30% of
Australian homes now have rooftop solar, rooftop solar coverage on
social housing in New South Wales, for example, is only 7% (8).
Energy
efficiency retrofits and renewable-powered air conditioning will not
only protect people from extreme temperatures and drive down costs of
living; they will also mitigate climate change and its health impacts
in the long term by reducing dependence on polluting fossil
fuel-based electricity.
Nature
Climate Change, 11, pages 492–500 (2021)
Published
31 May 2021:
The
burden of heat-related mortality attributable to recent human-induced
climate change
A.
M. Vicedo-Cabrera, N. Scovronick, F. Sera, D. Royé, R. Schneider, A.
Tobias, C. Astrom, Y. Guo, Y. Honda, D. M. Hondula, R. Abrutzky, S.
Tong, M. de Sousa Zanotti Stagliorio Coelho, P. H. Nascimento
Saldiva, E. Lavigne, P. Matus Correa, N. Valdes Ortega, H. Kan, S.
Osorio, J. Kyselý, A. Urban, H. Orru, E. Indermitte, J. J. K.
Jaakkola, N. Ryti, M. Pascal, A. Schneider, K. Katsouyanni, E.
Samoli, F. Mayvaneh, A. Entezari, P. Goodman, A. Zeka, P. Michelozzi,
F. de’Donato, M. Hashizume, B. Alahmad, M. Hurtado Diaz, C. De La
Cruz Valencia, A. Overcenco, D. Houthuijs, C. Ameling, S. Rao, F. Di
Ruscio, G. Carrasco-Escobar, X. Seposo, S. Silva, J. Madureira, I. H.
Holobaca, S. Fratianni, F. Acquaotta, H. Kim, W. Lee, C. Iniguez, B.
Forsberg, M. S. Ragettli, Y. L. L. Guo, B. Y. Chen, S. Li, B.
Armstrong, A. Aleman, A. Zanobetti, J. Schwartz, T. N. Dang, D. V.
Dung, N. Gillett, A. Haines, M. Mengel, V. Huber & A. Gasparrini
Abstract
Climate
change affects human health; however, there have been no large-scale,
systematic efforts to quantify the heat-related human health impacts
that have already occurred due to climate change. Here, we use
empirical data from 732 locations in 43 countries to estimate the
mortality burdens associated with the additional heat exposure that
has resulted from recent human-induced warming, during the period
1991–2018. Across all study
countries, we find that 37.0% (range 20.5–76.3%) of warm-season
heat-related deaths can be attributed to anthropogenic climate change
and that increased mortality is evident on every continent.
Burdens varied geographically but were of the order of dozens to
hundreds of deaths per year in many locations. Our findings support
the urgent need for more ambitious mitigation and adaptation
strategies to minimize the public health impacts of climate change. [my yellow highlighting]
The
Lancet,
Planetary
Health,
Volume 5, Issue 7, E415-E425
Article
published July 2021, excerpts:
Global,
regional, and national burden of mortality associated with
non-optimal ambient temperatures from 2000 to 2019: a three-stage
modelling study
Prof
Qi Zhao, PhD Prof Yuming Guo, PhD Tingting Ye, MSc Prof
Antonio Gasparrini, PhD Prof Shilu Tong, PhD Ala
Overcenco, PhD Aleš Urban, PhD Alexandra Schneider, PhD Alireza
Entezari, PhD Ana Maria Vicedo-Cabrera, PhD Antonella
Zanobetti, PhD Antonis Analitis, PhD Ariana Zeka, PhD Aurelio Tobias,
PhD Baltazar Nunes, PhD Barrak
Alahmad, MPH Prof Ben Armstrong, PhD Prof
Bertil Forsberg, PhD Shih-Chun Pan, PhD Carmen Íñiguez, PhD
Caroline Ameling, BS César De la Cruz Valencia, MSc Christofer
Åström, PhD Danny Houthuijs, MSc Do Van Dung, PhD Dominic Royé,
PhD Ene Indermitte, PhD Prof Eric Lavigne, PhD Fatemeh Mayvaneh, PhD
Fiorella Acquaotta, PhD Francesca
de'Donato, PhD Francesco Di Ruscio, PhD Francesco
Sera, MSc Gabriel Carrasco-Escobar, MSc Prof
Haidong Kan, PhD Hans Orru, PhD Prof Ho Kim, PhD Iulian-Horia
Holobaca, PhD Jan Kyselý, PhD Joana Madureira, PhD Prof Joel
Schwartz, PhD Prof Jouni J K Jaakkola, PhD Prof
Klea Katsouyanni, PhD Prof Magali Hurtado Diaz, PhD Martina
S Ragettli, PhD Prof Masahiro Hashizume, PhD Mathilde Pascal, PhD
Micheline de Sousa Zanotti Stagliorio Coélho, PhD Nicolás Valdés
Ortega, MSc Niilo Ryti, PhD Noah
Scovronick, PhD Paola Michelozzi, MSc Patricia Matus Correa, MSc Prof
Patrick Goodman, PhD Prof Paulo Hilario Nascimento Saldiva, PhD
Rosana Abrutzky, MSc Samuel
Osorio, MSc Shilpa Rao, PhD Simona Fratianni, PhD Tran Ngoc Dang, PhD
Valentina Colistro, MSc Veronika Huber, PhD Whanhee Lee, PhD Xerxes
Seposo, PhD Prof Yasushi Honda, PhD Prof Yue Leon Guo, PhD Prof
Michelle L Bell, PhD Shanshan
Li, PhD
Introduction
Earth's
average surface temperature has risen at a rate of 0·07°C per
decade since 1880, a rate that has nearly tripled since the 1990s.1
The acceleration of global warming has resulted in 19 of the 20
hottest years occurring after 2000 and an unprecedented frequency,
intensity, and duration of extreme temperature events, such as
heatwaves, worldwide. Exposure to non-optimal temperatures has been
associated with a range of adverse health outcomes (eg, excess
mortality and morbidity from various causes).2, 3, 4, 5, 6 All
populations over the world are under certain threats from non-optimal
temperatures, regardless of their ethnicity, location, sex, age, and
socioeconomic status. For example, in China, 14·3% of non-accidental
mortality in 2013–15 might have been related to non-optimal
temperatures, with 11·6% of deaths explainable by cold exposure and
2·7% explainable by heat exposure.7 In the USA, the risk of
mortality increased by 5–12% due to cold exposure and 5–10% due
to heat exposure between 2000 and 2006.8 An
association between ambient temperature and mortality risk has also
been reported in India, Australia, the EU, South Africa, and other
countries and regions.
9, 10, 11 [my yellow highlighting]
Figure
1 Average daily mean temperatures of the 750 locations from the 43
countries or territories included in the analysis
The
colours represent the different ranges of average daily mean
temperature during the data collection periods shown in the appendix
(p 4).
Daily
minimum and maximum temperatures between Jan 1, 2000, and Dec 31,
2019, were collected from the Global Daily Temperature dataset (grid
size 0·5° × 0·5°) of the Climate Prediction Center. This
dataset was developed, by use of a Shepard algorithm with
observational data from 6000 to 7000 weather monitoring stations
worldwide,15 as a benchmark for a range of reanalysis products and
climate change models. Daily mean temperature was calculated by
averaging daily minimum and maximum temperatures.
ScienceDirect
Energy
and Buildings
Volume
272, 1 October 2022:
Integrated
assessment of the extreme climatic conditions, thermal performance,
vulnerability, and well-being in low-income housing in the
subtropical climate of Australia
Shamila
Haddad, Riccardo Paolini, Afroditi Synnefa, Lilian De Torres, Deo
Prasad, Mattheos Santamouris
Abstract
Social
housing stock worldwide can be characterised by poor indoor
environmental quality and building thermal performance, which along
with the increasing urban overheating put the low-income population
at higher health risk. The dwellings’ thermal performance and the
indoor environmental quality are often overlooked in the context of
social housing compared to the general building stock in Australia.
In the present study, the synergies between urban microclimate,
indoor air temperature, housing characteristics and quality of life
of residents have been investigated by employing subjective and
objective assessment of indoor environmental quality in 106
low-income dwellings during the winter and summer of 2018–2019 in
New South Wales. It further examines the impact of urban overheating
and levels of income on indoor thermal conditions. The subjective
method involved assessing the links between the type of housing in
which low-income people live, energy bills, self-reported thermal
sensation, health and well-being, and occupants’ behaviours. The
results show that many dwellings operated outside the health and
safety temperature limits for substantial periods. Indoor air
temperatures reached 39.8 °C and the minimum temperature was about 5
°C. While the upper acceptability limit for indoor air temperature
was 25.6 °C for 80 % satisfaction, periods of up to about 997 and
114 continuous hours above 26 °C and 32 °C were found in overheated
buildings, respectively. Indoor overheating hours above 32 °C were
recorded up to 238 % higher in Sydney’s western areas compared to
eastern and inner suburbs. Similarly, residents in westerns suburbs
and regions experience more outdoor overheating hours than those
living near the eastern suburbs. This study highlights the
interrelationships between ambient temperature, housing design,
income, thermal comfort, energy use, and health and well-being in the
context of social housing. The evidence of winter underheating and
summer overheating suggests that improvements in building quality and
urban heat mitigation are required to minimise the impacts of
poor-performing housing and local climate. [my yellow highlighting]
