UN Report: Extreme Heat Could Burn Through 80 Mill Jobs, Globally: France, Germany Update
- 'Extreme heat could burn 80 million jobs, says UN agency.' Workers in Europe had to adapt to high temperatures in recent days. But the impact of heat stress on the global economy by the year 2030 will be severe, according to the UN. The world’s poorest will be worst affected. DW/Deutsche Welle, July 1, 2019. Excerpts:
Most workers in Europe are not used to extreme heat. They got a taste last week of just how debilitating it can be when temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius and above afflicted much of the continent, and its productivity with it. Yet extreme heat has long been a reality for millions of workers around the world, many of them in some of the world's poorest countries and regions. And there's a difference between an office worker occasionally forced to work a day or two in uncomfortable heat, and a textiles factory worker in a building without air conditioning, or a farmer working outside in 40 degrees or more.
Heat stress refers to heat in excess of what the human body can typically tolerate without suffering impairment. Generally occurring at temperatures above 35 degrees, excess heat in a work environment has multiple negative impacts.
> And according to a new report from the International Labour Organization (ILO), a UN agency that promotes working standards around the world, things are going to get worse. The study, titled "Working on a warmer planet - the impact of heat stress on labour productivity and decent work," says a major increase in climate-change-related heat stress could bring down global productivity levels by the equivalent of 80 million full-time jobs by the year 2030. In monetary terms, that many jobs are equivalent to global economic losses of $2.4 trillion (€2.1 trillion)...
Agriculture will be the sector worst hit. Almost 1 billion people worldwide work in agriculture, and it accounts for 60% of the projected job losses by 2030. The construction sector will also be severely impacted, with millions of jobs expected to be lost. Other sectors said to be at risk are environmental goods and services, refuse collection, emergency, repair work, transport, tourism, sports and some forms of industrial work..
Poorest regions most affected: The report makes detailed assessments of how various regions of the world will be affected, namely Africa, the Americas, the Arab States, Asia and the Pacific and Europe and Central Asia. A key finding is that the impact of the loss of productivity will be unequally distributed. Of the projected lost jobs and productivity, southern Asia and western Africa will be worst affected. More than 50 million jobs, or the equivalent in lost productivity, will go in those two regions, according to the report.
"We can expect to see more inequality between low and high income countries and worsening working conditions for the most vulnerable, as well as displacement of people." Investment and action needed...
More, https://www.dw.com/en/extreme-heat-could-burn-80-million-jobs-says-un-agency/a-49428979
Related: French Police Face Probe Over Tear Gas At Climate Protests, July 1, 2019
https://www.dw.com/en/french-police-face-probe-over-tear-gas-at-climate-protests/a-49434323
Germany Records All- Time Hottest June Temperatures, June 30, 2019
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-records-all-time-hottest-june-temperature/a-49420773
Germany Braces For Sweltering Temperatures In Europe- Wide Heat Wave, June 26, 2019
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-braces-for-sweltering-temperatures-in-europe-wide-heat-wave/a-44814768
UN Reports Record Number of Refugees Worldwide; David Miliband, Internatl Rescue Committee, NPR, June 20, 2019
https://www.npr.org/2019/06/20/734303107/u-n-reports-record-number-of-refugees-worldwide
Hanover Airport, Germany: parts of the runway buckled in extreme heat.
