It is well understood that human-induced climate change is causing more frequent and intense heat waves, exposing workers to heat stress and heat stroke. This not only has a serious impact on workers’ health, but also on their incomes and livelihoods. When workers are unable to work for prolonged periods or are unable to work at all due to extreme heat, the work hours lost due to extreme heat translate into lost wages or lower incomes. As we have explained elsewhere in The Lancet Planetary Health:
Due to extreme heat and exposure to the sun, as well as other extreme weather events, the times at which agricultural workers and marginal farmers can work in plantations and fields is getting shorter. The 2021 Lancet Countdown Report warned that 79% of all potential work hours lost to extreme heat in low HDI countries occurred in the agricultural sector in 2020. This finding raises concerns that the effect of heat exposure on working hours could also affect food production, resulting in devastating economic consequences to these already vulnerable workers.
Compared with working hours in 2012, agricultural workers and marginal farmers are now starting work earlier in the morning and finishing work later in the evening to avoid the hottest part of the day. Such changes in working time to reduce the risk of heat exhaustion and heat strain are often described as climate adaptation strategies. However, in several low and medium HDI countries workers might have already reached the limit of their adaptive capacity.
Among the most vulnerable workers are women workers in the informal economy who have reached the limits of their adaptive capacity and face the “devastating economic consequences” of lost work hours due to extreme heat. Their lack of access to social protection means they face an even greater risk of income loss and poverty. In response, the IUF-affiliated Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) has launched a new initiative to provide extreme heat insurance to women workers in the informal economy
SEWA’s new Heat Wave Insurance system enables members to address the urgent need to cope with extreme heat situations as well as to build their resilience to withstand its impact. Earlier this year a pilot Heat Wave Insurance system was introduced that covered 52,000 members from different trades in 22 districts. More than 46,000 members (88%) received benefits from this new insurance scheme which provided vital income support in severe heat waves.
This insurance enabled the SEWA members to avoid having to choose between protecting their health, purchasing medicines, feeding their families or financial security. Moreover, as SEWA has explained, this inclusive approach ensures that vulnerable women workers can reach beyond the physical limits of climate adaptation, thereby promoting equity and social justice. This is one of the ways to ensure a Just Transition.
See the BBC news report, “An insurance plan that protects women during extreme heat”: