Emerging economies face as much as 10 percent losses in
working hours because of deteriorating thermal conditions in the workplace due
to climate change, according to a new report released today.
The estimated losses imply adverse consequences of a
similar scale to economic output, or GDP, for a wide range of developing
countries, including India, Indonesia and Nigeria, as highlighted by the report.
Strengthening current plans for greenhouse gas emission
cuts under the Paris Agreement on climate change would, according to the study,
significantly reduce the economic and public health impact of escalating
workplace heat.
"We embarked on this report to give recognition to
this specific and serious concern, and to begin the conversation on how to
respond and deal with it. The challenges have to be addressed by governments,
employers, employees and other relevant international organizations if we want
to be able to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030," said Maria Luisa Silva, UNDP Geneva Director.
The findings were presented at International Labour
Organization (ILO) headquarters in Geneva, together with the 43-member Climate
Vulnerable Forum, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), ILO, the
International Organization for Migration (IOM), the International Organization
of Employers (IOE), UNI Global Union, the International Trade Union
Confederation (ITUC), ACT Alliance, and with the support of the World Health
Organization (WHO).
The release marked International Workers' Memorial Day,
with the report calling excessive workplace heat a well-known occupational
health and productivity danger behind growing risks of heat exhaustion, heat
stroke and, "in extreme cases", death.
The joint study, "Climate Change and Labour:
Impacts of Heat in the Workplace" is based on updated research into
labour-related effects for different economies exposed to increasingly extreme
thermal conditions because of climate change.
More than one billion employees and their employers and
communities in vulnerable countries already grapple with such severe heat in
the workplace, the report finds, and the impact of climate change on labour is
not being adequately accounted for by international and national climate or
employment policies.
For one country, the report found that reductions to
total available working hours due to climate change had already reached an
estimated 4 per cent by the 1990s, highlighting the current nature of the
challenge.
Highly exposed zones include the Southern United
States, Central America and the Caribbean, Northern South America, North and
West Africa, South and South East Asia, according to the report. Especially
vulnerable are Least Developed Countries, Small Island Developing States (SIDS)
and emerging economies with high concentrations of outdoor labour and
industrial and service sector workers operating in ineffectively
climate-controlled conditions.
Even with the stronger 1.5-degree Celsius limit settled
on under the Paris Agreement, key regions would face almost an entire month of
extreme heat each year by 2030 (2010-2030), the report finds.
Such heat reduces work productivity, increases the need
for work breaks and elevates risks to health and occupational injuries-effects
that also entail lower productive output on a "macro-scale" according
to the study.
Speaking at the report's launch, Cecelia Rebong,
Permanent Representative of the Philippines to the UN, said the impact of heat
in the workplace adds "another layer of vulnerability to developing
countries already reeling from the adverse impacts of climate change." The
need to limit global warming was "urgent and critical", she added.
According to the report, "when it is too hot,
people work less effectively out-of-doors, in factories, the office or on the
move due to diminished ability for physical exertion and for completing mental
tasks."
"Governments and international organizations have
long put in place standards on thermal conditions in the workplace. But climate
change has already altered thermal conditions," and "additional warming
is a serious challenge for any worker or employer reliant on outdoor or non-air
conditioned work." Levels of heat are already "very high" even
for acclimatized populations, it noted.
Technical development of the joint report was based on
research of the High Occupational Temperature Health and Productivity
Suppression (Hothaps) program of the Ruby Coast Research Centre, Mapua, New
Zealand, led by Tord Kjellstrom.
"The findings of the report highlight the
importance of occupational safety and health policies as important dimensions
in the responses to climate change," said Moustapha Kamal Gueye, ILO Green Jobs Programme.
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