India stands to lose more working hours to extreme heat than the rest of the world, in addition to the humanitarian cost of extreme heat events.
Around a dozen people died of heatstroke after attending a government function in Maharashtra on Sunday, with hundreds hospitalised. India stands to lose around six per cent of its working hours to extreme heat events by 2030, more than double then 2.2 per cent seen in the rest of the world, shows an analysis of data from the International Labour Organization (ILO). It is less than one per cent in both China and the US (chart 1). Though heat stress is likely to cause a greater impact on the agriculture sector, the construction sector will experience a larger reduction in working hours, according to the 2019 ILO report entitled ‘Working on a warmer planet: The impact of heat stress on labour productivity and decent work.’
This is the equivalent of losing over 34 million full-time jobs. China and the US have significantly lower numbers (chart 2). The number of heat wave and severe heat wave days have been rising, shows data shared in Parliament from 18 states. The sum of such days reported by each state has been rising. They reported a cumulative 40 such days in 2011. This has risen to 203 in 2022.
The total number of days of extreme heat was highest in Rajasthan (145 days) in the dozen years for which data was available going back to 2011. Andhra Pradesh was second with 111 days of heat wave and severe heat wave days reported since then. Third was Odisha with 108 (chart 3). The warmest day has already grown 0.63 degree Celsius warmer over a 30-year period ending 2015, according to the Ministry of Earth Sciences ‘Assessment of Climate Change over the Indian Region’ report. This could increase to 4.7°C by the end of the century, according to data from the report (chart 4).
