The report examined the economic impacts of heat in four cities with varying climate conditions and heat profiles: Ahmedabad in India, Bangkok in Thailand, Monterrey in Mexico, and Freetown in Sierra Leone.
The world's poorest women are losing an estimated $57billion in earnings every year as extreme heat driven by the worsening climate crisis devastates livelihoods, widens inequality and drains city economies across the globe, a new report has revealed.
The report warns that without urgent intervention, the economic and human toll of rising temperatures could increase three- to fivefold by 2050, with women working in the informal sector remaining the hardest hit while cities lose up to 8% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) annually to heat-related productivity losses.
The report, Counting the Cost of Heat: The Case for Urgent Solutions for Cities, was launched on Thursday during London Climate Action Week by Heat Resilience Action (HERA), a global adaptation organisation focused on protecting vulnerable populations from the impacts of rising temperatures.
According to the report, extreme heat has become one of the most underestimated threats to economic development, straining health systems, reducing productivity, and deepening inequalities, particularly among women working in informal jobs.
