" Extreme heat puts garment factory workers at risk, study shows", 9 December 2024

Workers in some of the world's biggest garment manufacturing hubs in Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Pakistan are increasingly exposed to extreme heat as climate change pushes temperatures up, a report found on Sunday, a problem multinational retailers and brands will have to help address.

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New European Union regulations make retailers selling in the bloc, like Inditex, H&M and Nike, legally liable for conditions at their suppliers, putting pressure on them to help fund improvements to cool factories they source from.

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In Dhaka, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Phnom Penh and Karachi, the number of days with "wet-bulb" temperatures - a measurement that accounts for air temperature as well as humidity - above 30.5 degrees Celsius jumped by 42% in 2020-2024 compared to 2005-2009, researchers at Cornell University's Global Labor Institute found.

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The report identified only three retailers - Nike, Levi's, and VF Corp - which specifically include protocols to protect workers from heat exhaustion in their supplier codes of conduct.

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Extreme heat and flooding could erase $65 billion in apparel export earnings from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan and Vietnam by 2030, research from asset manager Schroders and the Global Labor Institute found last year.