Background Climate change is increasing the risks of injuries, diseases, and deaths globally. However, the association between ambient temperature and renal diseases has not been fully characterized. This study aimed to quantify the risk and attributable burden for hospitalizations of renal diseases related to ambient temperature. Methods Daily hospital admission data from 1816 cities in Brazil were collected during 2000 and 2015. A time-stratified case-crossover design was applied to evaluate the association between temperature and renal diseases. Relative risks (RRs), attributable fractions (AFs), and their confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to estimate the associations and attributable burden. Findings A total of 2,726,886 hospitalizations for renal diseases were recorded during the study period. For every (1) over barC increase in daily mean temperature, the estimated risk of hospitalization for renal diseases over lag 0-7 days increased by 0 center dot 9% (RR = 1 center dot 009, 95% CI: 1 center dot 008-1 center dot 010) at the national level. The associations between temperature and renal diseases were largest at lag 0 days but remained for lag 1-2 days. The risk was more prominent in females, children aged 0-4 years, and the elderly >= 80 years. 7 center dot 4% ( 95% CI: 5 center dot 2-9 center dot 6%) of hospitalizations for renal diseases could be attributable to the increase of temperature, equating to 202,093 (95% CI: 141,554- 260,594) cases. Interpretation This nationwide study provides robust evidence that more policies should be developed to prevent heat-related hospitalizations and mitigate climate change. Copyright (c) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)