Climate change to affect Southeast Asia manufacturing sector

MANILA, Philippines - The manufacturing industry across Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, would suffer productivity losses in the next 30 years due to rising temperatures caused by climate change, a research showed.

A recent report released by British firm Verisk Maplecroft said that Southeast Asia could lose an average of 16 percent of its current labor capacity due to the rising heat stress in the next three decades.

Singapore and Malaysia are predicted to experience productivity loses at 25 percent and 24 percent, respectively. They are followed by Indonesia with 21 percent drop, and Cambodia and the Philippines with 16 percent.

Thailand and Vietnam could also suffer 12-percent decrease in labor productivity due to heat stress.

“Incremental rises in global temperature and humidity due to climate change are likely to increase the number of working days exceeding safe levels of heat stress, which can cause absenteeism through dizziness, fatigue and nausea and even death in extreme cases,” it said.

The company noted that by 2045, the number of “heat stress days” in Singapore and Malaysia will rise to 364 from the current 335 and 338, respectively, while Indonesia will experience 355 heat stress days from the current 303.

The Philippines, on the other hand, will have 337 heat stress days in 2045, up from the current 276.

“Climate change will push heat stress impacts to boiling point with significant implications for both national economies and the health of vulnerable workers,” James Allan, head of Environment at Verisk Maplecroft, said in a statement.

“Governments and business need to identify which assets, sectors, commodities and groups are most at risk and what protective measures should be put in place,” he added.

Verisk Maplecroft warned that the rising temperature could dampen the economic growth in the region, saying the impact of heat stress in labor capital has been overlooked.

“Investors in ‘extreme risk’ countries may also be exposed to rising costs for manufacturing and health care provisions, alongside disruption risks in their supply chains,” it added.

Meanwhile, the Philippines joined more than 100 governments in expressing its support for the Agenda for the Protection of People displaced across borders in the context of disasters and the effects of climate change. 

The Agenda to Protect People displaced by disasters is a non-binding document that consolidates the outcome of a series of regional intergovernmental consultations and civil society meetings convened by the Nansen Initiative (NI).

The NI is a bottom-up, state-led consultative process with multi-stakeholder involvement launched in 2012 to build consensus and elements for addressing the needs of people displaced across international borders in the context of disasters, including the effects of climate change.

“States’ attendance to this Global Consultation is a strong testament to how the Initiative has worked towards putting disaster displacement at the forefront of national issues of most States. The Philippines recognizes the risks involved and supports the vision expressed in the Agenda,” said Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Undersecretary Mateo Montano, co-head of the Philippine delegation to the NI Global Consultation, in delivering the Philippine statement during the consultation. – With Pia Lee-Brago