A new United Nations analysis warns that by 2030, labor impacts of rising temperatures and extreme weather tied to the human-caused climate crisis are projected to cost the global economy $2.4 trillion and exacerbate inequality worldwide.
The report, entitled Working on a Warmer Planet: The Impact of Heat Stress on Labor Productivity and Decent Work (pdf), was published Monday by the Geneva-based International Labor Organization (ILO).
“Heat stress refers to heat received in excess of that which the body can tolerate without suffering physiological impairment,” the report explains. “Such excess heat increases workers’ occupational risks and vulnerability; it can lead to heatstroke and, ultimately, even to death.”
In what the report frames as a “conservative estimate,” researchers found that “projections based on a global temperature rise of 1.5°C by the end of the twenty-first century, and also on labor force trends, suggest that, in 2030, 2.2 percent of total working hours worldwide will be lost to high temperatures—a productivity loss equivalent to 80 million full-time jobs.”
The anticipated economic losses, the report notes, are expected to disproportionately impact certain sectors and regions—particularly Southern Asia and Western Africa.
Given how many women around the world are employed in subsistence agriculture, the report also points out that heat stress could widen existing gender gaps in the global workforce.
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