ASIAN GARMENT WORKERS FACE RISING HEAT STRESS AMID CLIMATE CHANGE: REPORT

KARACHI, Dec 9 (Bernama-AA) – Garment workers in South and Southeast Asian countries are increasingly bearing the brunt of climate change in the form of heat stress, which leads to exhaustion, fainting, and heat stroke, according to a recent report.

Titled "Hot Air: How Will Fashion Adapt to Accelerating Climate Change?", the report was prepared by the Global Labor Institute (GLI), a UK-based organisation providing research and education services to local and international trade unions, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported.

The report looks ahead at the economic damage that extreme heat and intense flooding can cause for fashion production, forecasting that nearly one million new apparel and footwear jobs will be “foregone” by 2030 in four key producers—Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan and Vietnam—if they fail to make adaptation investments.

“They are cutting deeply into export earnings, employment and worker health. Without rapid adaptation, these falloffs in earnings and jobs will compound, “the report further said.

It predicted that the falloff in nominal earnings by 2030 could be 22 per cent across Pakistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

By 2050, it cautioned, these losses swing out to 68 per cent and 8 million jobs in the four countries.

As climate change accelerates, heat stress for apparel workers in South and Southeast Asian cities is intensifying, with heat waves becoming more frequent overall.

Each year, more than 2.4 billion workers are exposed to excessive heat, as rising temperatures lead to increased evaporation and more intense rainfall events compared to the past, according to estimates by the International Labour Organisation.

-- BERNAMA-AA