KOLKATA, INDIA – With temperatures in parts of India now reaching 45°C, researchers are experimenting with solutions to make life bearable in a post-climate change landscape that is only getting hotter.
With vulnerable people the most affected by the increasing heat, cost is a significant issue. And so it is that a simple coat of white paint is being successfully applied to roofs to reflect the sun’s rays, reducing heat absorption and offering much-needed relief to inhabitants.
The REFLECT project is a global collaboration between the University of Auckland and several universities, including the Indian Institute of Public Health (IIPH). In 2025, researchers trialled the effects of a white, solar-reflective paint in a year-long experiment across India, Burkina Faso, Mexico, Niue and Fiji, targeting communities experiencing severe heat exposure.
In Ahmedabad, the Gujarat state capital, IIPH researchers earmarked 400 households with tin or cement roofs. Around 200 received the cool roof intervention while another set served as a control. In both, indoor environmental sensors measured temperature and humidity.
“Temperatures in the white-painted houses came down by between 2°C and 4°C compared to the houses without the paint,” Anish Sinha, an associate professor at IIPH and REFLECT’s team lead for India, told The i Paper.
The paint relies on materials like titanium dioxide to reflect up to 80 per cent of sunlight and lower indoor temperatures.
One participant, Kam Ben, 23, told The i Paper that the cool roof initiative had made life bearable. “My house used to transform into a tinderbox during the summer, but the white coat has helped to lower the temperature drastically,” she said. “My daughter cries less and enjoys comfortable sleep even during the day.”
Cooling cities from the top down
In the UK, scientists have found that cool roofs can be very useful on particular building types and at scale. If reflective or white paint is widely applied to rooftops, it can significantly reduce the ground-level air temperature, especially in populous cities and towns, which can be 12°C warmer than the surrounding countryside due to the urban heat island effect.
The Greater London Authority’s 2023 Roofs Designed to Cool report provided a substantial evidence base for reflective-roof retrofits in plans to heatproof the city.
However, measures such as introducing reflective roofs on London buses to reduce the absorption of solar heat have not worked as hoped, due in part to it being absorbed through the windows and not reflecting at scale.
Other Western cities are prioritising reflective roofs. Toronto has run its Eco-Roof incentive programme since 2009 and at least nine cities in the US have mandatory policies for reflective roofs, including Los Angeles, New York, Houston and Chicago.
Between 2009 and 2016, New York’s NYC Cool Roofs programme invested $4m (£3m) in covering 6.7 million sq ft of rooftop space with white reflective paint, which it reported in 2017 reduced air conditioning costs by 10-30 per cent and winter heating costs by up to 30 per cent.
Between 2009 and 2016, New York’s NYC Cool Roofs programme invested $4m (£3m) in covering 6.7 million sq ft of rooftop space in white reflective paint (Photo: Danny Lehman/Getty)The programme also hired apprentices, gave job seekers a 10-week training course and connected them to further opportunities on completion.
In 2024, researchers at University College London and the University of Exeter found 32 per cent of heat-related deaths during the 2018 London heatwave could have been prevented if roofs had been painted in white reflective paint.
“Cool roofs are effective for reducing air temperatures indoors and outdoors, especially during warm clear-sky heatwaves induced by high-pressure systems,” said Oscar Brousse, a senior research fellow in Urban Climatology and Health at University College London.
“It is easier to cover large surfaces with cool roofs by focusing on large buildings rather than single houses. Cool roofs’ benefits on outdoor temperatures are especially perceptible when deployed on a large scale.”
Rajat Gupta, director of the Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development (OISD), said that not all buildings will see as much of a benefit: “Cool roofs are especially useful for top floor spaces, low-rise buildings and large-roof buildings, but their effect may be smaller in highly insulated roofs or buildings dominated by solar gains through glazing.”
But he said that cool roofs can support net-zero by reducing the need for air conditioning, lowering peak electricity demand and improving the efficiency of any cooling systems that are still required.
The UK Climate Change Committee recommends integrating adaptation with emissions-reduction measures so that buildings are improved once, rather than through separate and potentially conflicting programmes.
Cool roofs may be a promising tactic in the UK, and certainly a route to increased personal comfort. However, researchers are unanimous that, while limited awareness and a lack of clear regulatory guidance are present, successful implementation is a while off yet.
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