Marvin OnumonuClimate change is affecting jobs across the world, making existing workplace risks worse and creating new ones, according to reports from IOSH and Lloyd’s Register Foundation Global Safety Evidence Centre working with RAND Europe.
The Global Safety Evidence Centre asked RAND Europe to review how climate change is hitting high-risk and climate-vulnerable sectors.
The team used artificial intelligence (AI) and expert analysis to go through a wide range of material, finding gaps in the evidence and highlighting where more work is needed.
The reports found that extreme weather can disrupt workplaces and infrastructure, putting workers’ safety at risk.
Rising temperatures were found to cause health problems and force changes to working patterns.
Outdoor workers are especially at risk, with added dangers from air pollution and insect-borne diseases.
Giulia Maistrello, senior analyst at RAND Europe, and Dr Christopher Davis, thought leadership manager at IOSH, said: “The use of established and widely applicable principles of good OSH can help guide responses across contexts and different levels of safety maturity.
“This is especially so, given the scale, uncertainty and diversity of climate change effects.
“From artisanal farmers to mega-project construction workers, good practices can be guided by common principles, such as commitment, accountability and collaboration.”
Maistrello added: “As the IOSH white paper suggests, ‘the principles of good OSH are not altered by climate change – if anything, they are only made more important by it.’”
“Unpredictability requires that organisations are flexible and ready to adapt to emerging hazards, especially given that climate events can arrive with little warning.
“Regardless of location, all organisations should prepare for sudden events and changing conditions.”
