Strong climate action would boost productivity

U

nchecked global warming will have a serious negative impact on labor productivity this century. Ironically, strong climate action would be a huge boost to productivity.

Here’s what we know: A 2013 NOAA study concluded that “heat-stress related labor capacity losses will double globally by 2050 with a warming climate.” If we don’t get off our current path of carbon pollution emissions, we face as much as a 50 percent drop in labor capacity in peak months by century’s end.

A number of recent studies have projected a collapse in labor productivity from business-as-usual carbon emissions and warming, with an economic cost that could exceed all other costs of climate change combined. Further, one expert reviewing recent studies warned that “national output in several [non-agricultural] industries seemed to decline with temperature in a nonlinear way, declining more rapidly at very high daily temperatures.”

Read the ClimateProgress story - “Labor Day 2050: How Unchecked Global Warming Threatens Labor Productivity”.