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Heat-induced losses

Εxtreme heat induces losses, including impacts on health, livelihoods, ecosystems, and economic activity.

Understand how heat events translate into direct and indirect losses, as well as the factors that influence their scale and distribution. The following materials support a better understanding of heat-related losses to inform proactive risk reduction.

Explore different approaches to measure heat-related losses.

Every year, the equivalent of 300+ million full-time jobs are lost — not to layoffs, but because work has simply become too hot to do.
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Nationwide analysis of cases of emergency transport due to heatstroke in Japan from 2010 to 2024 thumbnail
Documents and publications
Nationwide analysis of cases of emergency transport due to heatstroke in Japan from 2010 to 2024

This study analyzed national trends in heatstroke-related emergency transports from 2010 to 2024 using Fire and Disaster Management Agency surveillance data in Japan focusing on age distribution, case severity, place of occurrence, and regional variation.

Nature Scientific Reports
Fatigued female worker sits against shipping container, wiping sweat from her forehead while holding a water bottle and hard hat.
Update
Capturing invisible heat: redefining how we measure losses

Heat is one of the deadliest climate hazards, yet its true impact remains difficult to quantify. Heat rarely leaves visible destruction, and its toll is often hidden in health statistics, economic losses, and gradual declines in well-being.

United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR)
Destroyed house by cyclone Pam that struck Vanuatu in March 2015.
Research briefs
Marine heatwaves ‘nearly double’ the economic damage caused by tropical cyclones

Tropical cyclones that rapidly intensify when passing over marine heatwaves can become “supercharged”, increasing the likelihood of high economic losses, a new study finds.

Carbon Brief
Update
IDRiM podcast #52 “Avoidable Deaths Network: Heatwaves”

The Avoidable Deaths Network (ADN) is thrilled to be collaborating with the Integrated Disaster Risk Management (IDRiM) Society Podcast series titled “ADN’s Global Campaign Season”.

Avoidable Deaths Network
All India Disaster Mitigation Institute
Integrated Disaster Risk Management Society
A thermometer showing high temperatures. A city is blurred in the background.
Update
Heatwaves cost billions: how we can better prepare

Heatwaves are becoming increasingly frequent, deadly, and costly in Australia, making improved preparedness at household, community, and policy levels an urgent necessity.

Natural Hazards Research Australia
A sunrise casts its light over the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of West Los Angeles, in the aftermath of the 2025 wildfires.
Update
Earth was hit by 55 billion-dollar weather disasters in 2025

The world endured its costliest wildfire on record in 2025, its sixth-deadliest heat wave, and four floods or storms that caused at least 1,000 deaths.

Yale Climate Connections
Future risks and trends in heat
Topic guide
Last updated 8 May 2026
Heat risk assessment
Explore this collection to learn more about the latest insights on future heat trends, the science behind heatwaves and compound events, heatwave-related attribution studies, and content on how we measure heat and losses.
Heatwave, Bangladesh, 2023
Update
When heat drains growth: The human cost of rising temperatures in Bangladesh

A new World Bank report, An Unsustainable Life: The Impact of Heat on Health and the Economy of Bangladesh, paints a sobering picture. It shows that heat is no longer just an environmental concern, it is a pressing development challenge.

World Bank, the
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