Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration has announced a plan aimed at better protecting residents from the effects of extreme heat.

The Extreme Heat Resilience Plan unveiled July 19 was developed by the state’s Interagency Council on Climate Resilience. It contains 136 specific actions to be implemented by the 22 state agencies that make up the council.

Shawn LaTourette, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection, said in the release announcing the plan, “The facts are indisputable – New Jersey is among the fastest-warming states, and the impacts of extreme heat are becoming more profound.”

A report from the nonprofit research organization Climate Central supports LaTourette’s statement with data showing the Garden State as the third-fastest warming state in the country and the fastest-warming state in the Northeast.

State studies have found that development density contributes strongly to New Jersey’s vulnerability, creating what is called the urban heat-island effect caused by large areas of paved surfaces and buildings.

In April the state released the draft of the action plan along with an updated Heat Hub NJ that the state implemented to provide information and guidance for dealing with extreme heat. With the July 19 announcement, the action plan is final, and the implementation of its recommendations is next.

The plan states that extreme heat poses immediate and long-term health risks. It negatively impacts air quality, food and water supplies, the longevity of infrastructure and the stability of environmental habitats. It frustrates train commuters when steel rails buckle under extreme temperatures and leads to waves of emergency room visits for heat-related illnesses. In June, the state Department of Health reported that as many as 537 visits to ERs were due to heat impact in one day.

In the plan, extreme heat is defined as a period of at least two to three days when temperatures are above 90°F. Extreme heat is dangerous because it makes the body work harder to maintain normal temperatures. People who are more at risk from extreme heat include older adults, children and people with certain illnesses and chronic conditions.

Now, officials warn, the number of days of extreme heat is increasing, and the population at risk is widening. Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows New Jersey experienced a record heat wave in June: From June 17 to 24, temperatures broke records, with highs of 100 degrees recorded in many areas of the state.

The 136 actions outlined in the report are grouped into 13 focus areas that include residential cooling, worker safety measures, energy infrastructure reliability, cooling centers, promoting “climate smart” practices in agriculture and more.

Five priority actions are legislation to expand cooling centers and the development of worker safety standards, strengthening ecosystems, promoting what the report calls coordinated governance, investing in information to increase public understanding, and “climate-informed investments and innovative financing.”

The federal Environmental Protection Agency says that the nation has seen around 14,000 Americans die directly from heat-related causes from 1979 to 2022. But scientists warn that heat, as either a direct or contributing cause of death, often does not make it to death certificates, the primary source of the data. In 2023 alone some 2,300 people died in the United States from the effects of excessive heat. That was according to data collected in very different ways, often inconsistent with each other.

By comparison, a study published in the journal Nature Medicine estimated more than 61,000 heat-related deaths in the summer of 2023 across Europe.

Extreme heat is also more than a direct threat to human health.

Scientists say that heat is the first-order result of climate change. It is the warming of the Earth, they say, that drives the other dangers the planet faces. Heat melts glaciers, producing sea level rise. Heat warms the oceans, contributing to the intensification of storms. Heat sucks the moisture out of trees and brush, making them more susceptible to fire.

The action plan does have limitations: It deals mostly with the areas of jurisdiction of the 22 departments on the interagency council, and it deals with those only at the level of what state agencies can do.

Any potential efforts by agencies that are not on the council are not in the plan. One example is that interagency council does not include the Department of Education, so the plan does not speak to the state’s schools and heat mitigation.

Most conspicuous by their absence are the state’s 564 municipalities and 21 counties. In a home-rule state like New Jersey, many potential actions come under the jurisdiction of local government.

Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.