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Climate Fresk workshop at JDE Peet’s: Linking worker safety and climate change

Written by Joy and Elise van Breda via LinkedIn
Published on: May 24, 2024

We had the opportunity to facilitate a Climate Fresk workshop at JDE Peet’s as part of their safety, health, and environment conference. We were delighted to see a room filled with 30 enthusiastic participants, and it was a dynamic and highly informative session!

Recently, the International Labour Organization (ILO) released the report “Ensuring Safety and Health at Work in a Changing Climate“, providing crucial evidence that climate change is already causing severe impacts on the safety and health of workers worldwide. The report underscores that those working outdoors are the most vulnerable to climate hazards yet frequently have no choice but to continue working, even if conditions are dangerous, leading to worker morbidity and mortality.

Many workers are exposed to excessive heat, UV radiation, extreme weather events, air pollution, vector-borne diseases, and agrochemicals, all of which were extensively discussed during the workshop. The report’s statistics are alarming – 2.41 billion workers are exposed to challenging or lethal temperatures, a number that is projected to increase as the planet continues to heat up.

It’s worth noting that mean annual temperatures of 29°C or higher are considered unliveable and that such extreme temperatures are associated with a range of adverse effects on crop yields and workers’ productivity and health. When exposed to high temperatures, people must adapt by altering clothing, changing their environment, and adjusting work patterns. Above 28°C, well-being rapidly declines, and adaptation is necessary. But there is a limit to adaptation; at a certain point, sweating doesn’t cool people down anymore, and above 40°C, temperatures can be fatal – the risk increases with humidity.

Climate change also affects work productivity as it can be too hot or humid to work or because workers must work at a slower pace. According to the 2019 ILO report “Working on a Warmer Planet“, it is projected that by 2030, 2.2% of total working hours worldwide (~80 million full-time jobs) will be lost to high temperatures. Heat stress alone is projected to reduce GDP by 2.4 trillion USD in 2030. And these losses are not evenly distributed geographically – workers in tropical and subtropical regions face a higher risk of heat stress due to the combined effect of extreme heat and the high share of employment in agriculture.

The adverse effects on workers’ health and productivity were a key focus during the workshop and we spent time discussing the importance of sustainable practices in mitigating these risks. In a three-hour workshop, we can only discuss so much, but it sure helps build an understanding of the causes and consequences of climate change and invites all participants to have an open and positive conversation about climate solutions and our roles in combating climate change and its risks.

Joy and Elise van Breda

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