The invisible tax: How climate change is stripping earnings from the world’s poorest women – Report
Orisemeke Benjamin
A silent thief is stalking the world’s rapidly warming cities, and it targets the poorest women on the planet.
A groundbreaking report by the NGO Heat Resilience Action (HERA), launched at London Climate Action Week, reveals that extreme heat is no longer a distant climate risk—it is an economic catastrophe. Globally, 740 million women laboring in the informal economy are bearing the brunt of a hotter world, losing a staggering $57 billion in annual earnings.
The report, Counting the Cost of Heat, tracks four economically diverse cities: Ahmedabad, Bangkok, Monterrey, and Freetown. The results are stark. In an average year, heatwaves drain up to 8% of local GDPs and claim thousands of lives. Yet, because women are disproportionately trapped in unregulated, informal jobs—comprising up to 91% of working women in Freetown—they are the least protected.
“Extreme heat is draining growth, health, and equality,” said Kathy Baughman McLeod, CEO of HERA. “It is taking a major toll on the women most exposed and least able to escape it.”
For street vendors, market women, and waste pickers who survive on just $3 a day, a hot day means severe productivity drops. In Bangkok, women suffer an 11% plunge in productivity, directly reducing their ability to buy food or fund their children’s education. Because women typically reinvest 90% of their income back into their families, this climate tax ripples directly into the health and futures of the next generation.
Furthermore, the danger persists long after twilight. Rising nighttime temperatures give vulnerable bodies no time to recover. In places like Freetown, lower-income residents suffocate in homes built with heat-trapping corrugated iron, driving a surge in heat-related deaths and preterm births.
Yet, HERA emphasizes that this crisis is entirely avoidable. The report outlines highly cost-effective, low-tech solutions: installing cool roofs that immediately drop indoor temperatures by up to 7°C, implementing localized Heat Response Plans, and pioneering tailored heat insurance for informal workers.
The critical catch? These solutions must be designed with these women, not just for them. Traditional warning systems rely heavily on smartphone literacy, which often bypasses the poorest.
The window to build global heat resilience is closing fast. Without immediate, inclusive intervention, these economic and human costs are projected to multiply fivefold by 2050.
