Heat Cost Asia $1.1 Trillion in Lost Labor; Boards Ignore Health Risk

Global labor losses from heat exposure reached $1.1 trillion in 2024, according to the Lancet Countdown — and Asia, warming faster than the global average, stands to lose the most.

The figure comes from a new Fortune commentary that argues Asia's boardrooms are mispricing climate risk by focusing on physical assets, supply chains and regulation while missing what research now identifies as one of the largest costs of a warming world: human health.

Prolonged heatwaves defined this summer across much of the Northern Hemisphere, from record temperatures in Europe and Asia to rising water stress, wildfire risk and workforce safety concerns. For decades, executives treated these as discrete operational hazards. A growing body of research reframes them as a workforce issue, a productivity issue and, ultimately, a business resilience issue.

The numbers behind the heat

The World Health Organization and the World Meteorological Organization find that worker productivity declines as temperatures rise. The Lancet Countdown put the global labor loss from heat exposure at $1.1 trillion in 2024 alone.

Asia's exposure is disproportionate. The Singapore-ETH Center projects economic losses of approximately 2.2 billion Singapore dollars ($1.7 billion) in Singapore by 2035 as workers lose productivity to heat stress. The Asian Development Bank estimates climate change could cut GDP in developing Asia by almost 17% by 2070 in a high-emissions scenario, with reduced labor productivity among the main contributors.

These climate-health pressures converge with demographic strain. By 2050, one in four people in Asia is expected to be over the age of 60, adding further pressure to healthcare systems already burdened by heatstroke, dehydration, respiratory illness from haze, and injuries from floods and natural disasters.

Three priorities for business leaders

The commentary sets out three priorities. First, build climate-health literacy across the whole organization. Around 75% of companies now disclose board oversight of climate-related issues, up from just 6% six years ago. Yet climate-related health risks cut across workforce strategy, operational resilience, business continuity and long-term value creation — which the author argues warrants greater focus at board and executive committee level.

Second, make the workforce more resilient. For employers, that means assessing exposure to heat and poor air quality, adapting working hours or locations during extreme conditions, ensuring access to cooling and hydration, and incorporating climate-related illness into business-continuity planning. The measures matter most for Asia's large outdoor and operational workforces.

The gap is wide. The World Economic Forum's 2025 Resilience Pulse Check found that 84% of organizations felt underprepared for future disruptions to their workforce. The report concludes resilience must become a core strategic priority rather than a reactive response to crises.

Third, invest in resilient systems. Healthy communities and functioning healthcare systems are essential economic infrastructure — businesses depend on them as they do on transport networks, energy systems and digital connectivity. Strengthening them requires collaboration between governments, healthcare providers, development institutions and private capital.

The insurer's vantage point

The commentary is written from the perspective of a life and health insurer operating, in the author's words, "at the intersection of health, wellbeing, and long-term risk." For AIA, managing climate risk includes a commitment to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, supported by SBTi-validated near-term targets and a Climate Transition Plan.

A report independently authored by the Forum for the Future, "Climate and Health in Asia," underscores the scale of the region's exposure: 99 of the world's 100 most environmentally at-risk cities are located in Asia, and more than 40 million households forgo medical care because of financial constraints amid rising climate and health pressures.

The author's bottom line is blunt: "The question is no longer whether climate change will affect health. It already has." Business leaders must instead ask whether they recognize climate-related health risk for what it has become — a strategic challenge that will influence workforce resilience, productivity and long-term economic growth across Asia. Those who act early, the argument goes, will be better positioned to understand emerging risks, strengthen resilience and support the transition to a lower-carbon future.