Inequitable distribution of risks associated with occupational heat exposure driven by trade

• Published in: Nature communications 2025-01, Vol.16 (1), p.537-11, Article 537
• Main Authors: Li, Meng, Meng, Bo, Geng, Yong, Tong, Fan, Gao, Yuning, Yamano, Norihiko, Lim, Sunghun, Guilhoto, Joaquim, Uno, Kimiko, Chen, Xiaohong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 704/844/2739/2807; 704/844/841; 706/134; 706/689/694/2739/2807; Climate adaptation; Climate change; Climate models; Commerce; Developing Countries; Economic development; Exposure; Extreme heat; Extreme Heat - adverse effects; Heat; Hot Temperature - adverse effects; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; International trade; multidisciplinary; Occupational exposure; Occupational Exposure - adverse effects; Physical work; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Working conditions; Working hours; Workplace; Workplaces
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-55483-5

The exposure to extreme heat at workplaces poses substantial threat to human effort and manual labour. This becomes more prominent due to the global dispersion of labour-intensive production activities via trade. We combine a climate model with an input–output model to quantify the risks associated with trade-related occupational extreme heat exposure. Here we show an 89% surge in trade-related labour exposure to extreme heat, escalating from 221.5 to 419.0 billion person-hours between 1995 and 2020. Lower-middle-income and low-income economies constituted 53.7% and 18.3% of global exposure but only 5.7% and 1.0% of global labour compensation. In countries highly susceptible to extreme heat conditions, workers perform tasks in heated conditions for up to about 50% of their working hours. The disproportionate trade effects in redistributing global benefits and costs leads to the inequality in heat exposure between developed and developing economies. In striving for equitable and safe work conditions, workers vulnerable to heat extremes in developing economies should be protected by climate adaptation infrastructure, given their critical roles in the global production system. As climate change drives more frequent extreme heat, this study reveals how global trade has intensified heat exposure for workers. Between 1995 and 2020, labour exposure to extreme heat rose by 89%, with many workers now spending nearly half their work hours in dangerous temperatures.