COP30’s Adaptation Message Must be Applied to the Link between Climate Change and the Well-Being of Global Workers
November 21, 2025
Climate adaptation was a central focal point of COP30, the global environmental conference that was held in Brazil and came to a close today. This year’s conference was held under the banner “Delivering on the Paris Promise,” centered on social justice, climate finance, and the energy transition, with a strong emphasis on adaptation and implementation.
Across the fortnight, discussions have stressed the need to strengthen resilience to climate impacts already unfolding—particularly in developing nations that are least responsible for emissions but most exposed to harm. However, a critical piece of the adaptation puzzle needs greater attention: if social justice is indeed part of this equation, then businesses need to protect their global workforce and address the effects of global warming on workers, especially in the hottest places on our planet.
According to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, adaptation refers to adjustments in ecological, social, and economic systems in response to the ongoing damage caused by climate change. Countries, communities, and institutions must develop and implement adaptation strategies that respond to and mitigate existing climate change impacts. This imperative is in line with the 2015 Paris Agreement’s Global Goal on Adaptation, which calls for increased adaptive capacity and resilience to climate damage that already exists.
In his eighth Presidential letter in the lead up to COP30, André Aranha Correa do Lago implored that adaptation is the very “essence of sustainable development,” warning that without adaptation, climate change becomes a “poverty multiplier.” Adaptation is essential to “align the climate regime with daily realities” and to protect lives and economies in a world facing increasing harm from climate destabilization.
How Adaptation Applies to the Garment Industry
While international climate discussions often focus on national policies and broad systemic changes, the reality is that climate impacts are experienced most acutely by individual workers—particularly those in exposed industries and regions. Yet corporate environmental agendas often overlook adaptation entirely and fail to integrate environmental and human rights priorities.
The past decade was the hottest on record, and heat stress is now the leading cause of weather related deaths. The International Labour Organization (ILO) identified that 70% of the global working population, 2.41 billion workers, are likely to be exposed to extreme heat at some point during their work. The ILO attributes extreme heat to roughly 23 million non-fatal injuries and nearly 19,000 deaths annually. It also drives staggering productivity losses: 512 billion potential working hours were lost in 2023 alone.
While people typically associate these risks with outdoor industries like mining, agriculture, or construction, these risks are also significant in indoor manufacturing, like the garment sector. Global production of clothing is heavily concentrated in South and Southeast Asia—regions where more than 70% of the workforce is regularly exposed to extreme heat. Without adaptation, countries like Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan, and Vietnam could face $65 billion in lost export earnings due to extreme heat and flooding by 2030.
The apparel industry is responsible for an estimated 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions each year, placing multinational brands in a unique position to drive reductions in the climate impacts of their supply chains. However, with approximately 94 million garment industry workers worldwide, a just transition demands that the mitigation efforts be executed alongside pursuing shared prosperity and improved protections for workers. Otherwise, companies risk embedding existing inequalities in global supply chains.
COP30 acknowledged these realities, including through the launch of the Belém Health Action Plan. But global brands have a critical role to play. Protecting supply-chain workers from extreme heat is not just a human rights responsibility—it is increasingly important to business continuity and competitiveness.
Extreme Heat: The Climate Threat Already Reshaping Garment Production
This September, two colleagues and I visited India for NYU’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights. We visited nine garment factories that employ nearly 9,000 workers. The purpose of our visit was to assess how extreme heat is affecting workers’ health, safety, and productivity. We will report on our findings early next year, but it was clear across these facilities that workers routinely face physical strain caused by rising temperatures and humidity. Moreover, very few buyers even ask their suppliers about this challenge, urge them to monitor temperatures in these factories, or take even minimal steps to mitigate the risk. This points to a profound gap in awareness and the need for these global brands to recognize and address the impact of heat on their workforce.
As the Geneva Center for Business and Human Rights and the Council of Europe wrote in a recent report, companies are better positioned for long-term success when their business models are grounded in human rights. Many companies have come to acknowledge that climate change is a material business risk—undermining worker health, livelihoods, and production stability. To remain competitive, companies need to adapt their business models to ensure that their suppliers have the capacity and resources to manage the impact of climate change on those producing their products. Failing to do so leaves businesses, their suppliers, and millions of workers vulnerable to the risks posed by an increasingly hot and unstable climate.
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