Climate Change Administration

Europe has recently been facing severe heatwaves, with France, Germany and the Czech Republic all recording temperatures above 40°C, posing serious challenges to public health and the functioning of society. The Ministry of Environment emphasized that responding to extreme heat requires close coordination across ministries and concerted efforts between central and local governments. For the first time, this year’s exercise was based on a scenario of three consecutive days of 40°C heat, strengthening Taiwan’s capacity to take timely climate adaptation and response actions.

The Ministry noted that last year’s trial exercise was based on the Central Weather Administration’s 38°C high-temperature red alert. This year, the scenario was escalated to an extreme 40°C event and implemented in four stages: a seminar, tabletop exercise, field drill, and review meeting. Today’s tabletop exercise was overseen by Deputy Minister Yen-Ru Hsieh, with 34 central and local government agencies taking part. Participants were asked to respond to a series of cascading impacts following a high-temperature alert, including power outages, water shortages, heat-related injuries, railway speed restrictions, smoldering waste, and road softening, to comprehensively assess inter-agency coordination and resource deployment.

In his opening remarks, Minister of Environment Chi-Ming Peng noted that, with El Niño developing this year and global temperatures repeatedly reaching record highs, extreme heat is no longer simply a matter of “turning on the air conditioning” or “whether to suspend work and classes.” It has become a governance challenge spanning public health, healthcare, energy, transportation, education, worker safety, and care for vulnerable populations. The exercise focused on five key areas: whether early warnings are issued in time, whether information is consistent, whether responsibilities are clearly defined, whether resources can be deployed rapidly, and whether overall resilience is sufficient.

Minister Peng emphasized that the greatest value of a tabletop exercise lies in identifying institutional gaps early and continuously strengthening response mechanisms. In the longer term, adaptation measures such as developing urban forests nationwide will also help reduce the impacts of extreme heat.

Following the exercise, Professor Chang-Fu Wu of National Taiwan University, Professor Tzu-Ping Lin of National Cheng Kung University, and Professor Yu-Chun Wang of Chung Yuan Christian University served as evaluators and provided feedback. All three commended the exercise as Taiwan’s first comprehensive tabletop exercise based on a scenario of three consecutive days of 40°C heat. They recommended further strengthening care for older people living alone, people with chronic diseases, outdoor workers, and other vulnerable groups; strengthening backup arrangements for medical services, cooling centers, and essential life-support systems; in addition to establishing clearer cross-ministerial notification mechanisms, responsibilities, and standard operating procedures (SOPs) to enhance resilience to compound impacts.

In concluding the exercise, Deputy Minister Yen-Ru Hsieh said that the Ministry of Environment has integrated 9,641 “Cool Map” cooling spots nationwide, providing people with nearby places to seek relief from the heat. The tabletop exercise brought together central and local government agencies and expert evaluators, while related measures, including work and school closures and arrangements for outdoor work in extreme heat, will continue to be reviewed by the relevant authorities.

Deputy Minister Hsieh added that the recommendations from the exercise will be incorporated into the field drill in July for item-by-item verification and further refinement, helping turn the lessons from the tabletop exercise into practical response capabilities. The overall results will also be incorporated into the dedicated Extreme Heat Chapter of the 4th National Climate Change Adaptation Action Plan (2027–2030), providing an important foundation for institutionalizing these measures.

The Ministry of Environment will continue working with central ministries and local governments to strengthen Taiwan’s heat-response mechanisms and build greater adaptive capacity and social resilience in the face of extreme heat.