Kuwait’s inferno: how will the world's hottest city survive climate change?

It is 9am and the temperature in Kuwait City is 45C and rising, but already people working outside. A row of litter-pickers are already hard at work along a coastal highway, their entire bodies covered to protect them from the sun. Outside one of the city’s many malls, valets hover beside the air-conditioned entrance, while two men in white hats huddle wearily next to their ice cream stands.

Road to ruin? … labourers at work on the Sheikh Jaber
Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah causeway in Kuwait City in February. 

Other city residents are luckier. They can avoid the outdoors altogether, escaping the inferno by sheltering in malls, cars and office buildings, where temperatures are kept polar-cold.

For years, Kuwait’s climate has been steadily heating up. In the summer months, the Gulf state now frequently touches 50C, and was last year awarded the grim prize of being the hottest place on earth, when temperatures reached a staggering high of 54C.

Read Ruth Michaelson on The Guardian - "Kuwait’s inferno: how will the world's hottest city survive climate change?”