Workforce Health Across the Value Chain 2025

Certain regions of the world are particularly vulnerable to severe weather or other types of climate impacts. And business will be looking at how they can ensure the resilience of their operations. That is, the physical infrastructure but also the local supply of labour. How will that be impacted – either through an immediate crisis or, in the medium to longer term, ensuring the viability of their enterprise? Because without workers there is no possibility of running a hotel. Peter Andrews, Director of Programmes and Chief of Staff, World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance The global scale and frequency of climate impacts on people risk is increasingly daunting: the International Labour Organization estimates that more than 2.4 billion workers (nearly 70% of the global workforce) are now likely to be directly affected by climate-related hazards such as heatwaves, flooding and air pollution.49 Effectively managing these risks requires visibility into who is exposed, what vulnerabilities exist and where they are most acute. Interviewees consistently emphasized the lack of transparency into local, on-the-ground realities – especially in supplier geographies – as a critical barrier. Two- thirds of participants highlighted this opacity as a major constraint to anticipating compounding risks. The intersection of extreme climate hazards with health burdens and economic dependencies can amplify disparities, creating hotspots of risk. Figure 2 illustrates this convergence, mapping manufacturing- reliant nations facing both severe heat risk and rising burdens of non-communicable disease – conditions that could significantly undermine workforce resilience in key supply locations. Mapping manufacturing-dependent countries by health and climate risk factors FIGURE 2 Note: Countries were included if they met three criteria: a 2025 extreme heat hazard level of 4 (very high), a manufacturing sector contributing more than 10% of GDP in 2023 and projected 2050 disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) above the median. NCD DALYs were selected to reflect long-term health burdens, while extreme heat represents a key climate stressor for labour-intensive manufacturing. As shown, top manufacturing-reliant countries with both high heat and NCD risks include many equatorial nations across South-East Asia and Central/South America. Source: World Bank;50 World Bank;51 Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME)52 Non-communicable disease DAL YsManufacturing as a percentage of GDP 10 14K 16K 18K 20K 22K 24K 26K 28K 30K 32K 34K 36K1112131415161718192021222324252627 BeninBurkina FasoGhana BoliviaColombiaEcuadorPakistanGuatemalaHondurasArgentina IndiaBrazilEl SalvadorMoroccoTunisiaSaudi Arabia United Arab EmiratesGuinea-BissauTogoCamer oonSenegalJordanCentral African RepublicUzbekistanParaguayMexicoBahrainMyanmarBangladeshViet NamCambodia China Thailand NigeriaMali