Climate Adaptation
McKinsey Sees $4.7 Trillion in Labor Risk as Asian Climate Warms
- Lethal heatwaves would affect poor people who do outdoor work
- More severe flooding, droughts and typhoons seen across region
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Lethal heatwaves, droughts, floods and typhoons will become more common in Asia-Pacific, which faces more severe potential impacts from climate change than many parts of the world, according to McKinsey & Co. researchers.
Asia is particularly at risk because it has such a high number of poor people, who tend to rely more on outdoor work, living in areas most vulnerable to extreme increases in heat and humidity, McKinsey Global Institute said in a new report published Thursday. By 2050, the loss of that labor could cost the region as much as $4.7 trillion a year in GDP, about two-thirds of the global total at risk.