Agriculture and construction workers face mounting income losses by 2030 as temperatures rise
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CLIMATE CHANGE
Star Online Report
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Climate change is not only making Bangladesh hotter but also pushing households deeper into financial hardship, creating a double burden for millions of people, according to a new global report released today.
The report says rising temperatures are reducing workers’ incomes while driving up healthcare costs across the country.
Titled “Heat, Health and the Increasing Costs of Living — A Call for Action” and published by adelphi global, the report identifies Bangladesh as one of the countries most vulnerable to the combined economic impacts of climate-driven extreme heat.
Alongside India and Nigeria, Bangladesh faces some of the highest risks, as widespread informal employment, rising health costs and limited social protection leave millions of households highly exposed.
The study is one of the first of its kind to examine how climate-induced heat simultaneously affects household incomes and living costs across eight countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Nigeria and South Africa.
According to the analysis, workers in Bangladesh’s agriculture and construction sectors are projected to lose the equivalent of 23.75 working days annually because of heat stress by 2030.
These sectors already experience some of the country’s highest productivity losses. Under a low-emissions climate scenario, working-hour losses in agriculture and construction are expected to rise from 6.28 percent at present to 9.58 percent by 2030.
Across all sectors, annual working-hour losses are projected to increase from 4.24 percent to 4.84 percent. The report says these losses will translate directly into reduced incomes for millions of workers, particularly those employed informally without paid leave, health insurance or income protection.
The report also highlights Bangladesh’s heavy reliance on out-of-pocket healthcare spending. In 2023, households directly paid 79.3 percent of the country’s total health expenditure, one of the highest rates among the countries examined.
Meanwhile, annual per capita out-of-pocket medical spending has increased by more than 830 percent since 2000.
Bangladesh is projected to remain among the world’s most heat-exposed countries over the coming decades. According to the report, most parts of the country will experience high to very high humidity-based heat risk between 2020 and 2039, with between 183 and 239 days each year exceeding 30 degrees Celsius.
During extreme heatwaves, productivity losses in some sectors could reach as high as 50 percent.
The report warns that these impacts are particularly severe because Bangladesh’s labour market is dominated by informal employment.
Nearly all women working in agriculture are employed informally, while informal employment also remains extremely high across construction and other heat-exposed sectors. Without social protection, every lost working hour immediately translates into lost income.
Beyond individual households, extreme heat is also imposing substantial economic costs on the country.
Citing a recent Lancet report, the study says Bangladesh lost an estimated $24 billion in labour income and productivity due to extreme heat in 2024, equivalent to around five percent of the country’s GDP.
Recurrent electricity shortages during heatwaves further compound these impacts by exposing workers, factory employees and households to dangerous indoor temperatures while limiting access to cooling.
The report argues that Bangladesh can no longer treat climate adaptation, public health and labour protection as separate policy areas. Instead, it calls for a coordinated approach that places people at the centre of climate adaptation.
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Among its key recommendations, it urges governments to strengthen public health systems to reduce reliance on out-of-pocket healthcare spending, expand social and labour protections for workers affected by extreme heat, integrate heat-related health risks into national adaptation planning, and mobilise climate finance specifically for health and worker protection.
