This report is the first in a summer 2024 series of products from the Center for American Progress that will focus on policy recommendations to address the needs of populations that are particularly vulnerable to extreme heat.
Introduction and summary
Heat-related illness has been recognized as an occupational hazard for decades.1 Extreme heat conditions are increasing in frequency across the United States, exposing a rising number of workers to conditions that cause injury, illness, and death. For example, during extreme heat events, workers suffer from heat-related illness including heat exhaustion and heat stroke; occupational injuries from high heat exposure such as burns or falls from dizziness; and exacerbation of preexisting conditions such as asthma, kidney disease, or heart disease.2 These health consequences also have economic impacts, including lost worker productivity, increased health care costs and worker compensation claims, and threats to workers’ financial stability from missing work.3
These risks grow as heat waves spurred by climate change become more frequent, longer lasting, and more intense.4 July 2023 was the hottest month ever recorded, and forecasters predict the approaching summer months will bring above-average heat.5
Workers across many industries, from those working on farms and construction sites to restaurants and warehouses, need protection.6 But workers who are most exposed to extreme heat and most in need of protection have the fewest resources to avoid hazardous job exposures.7 These same workers are disproportionately low-wage earners, people of color, and immigrants.8
The Center for American Progress recommends that federal, state, and local policymakers take the following actions to reduce worker injuries, illnesses, and deaths from extreme heat:
- Accelerate and expand federal and state efforts to protect workers, including speeding the adoption of a federal heat standard.
- Raise awareness about and promote voluntary actions among employers to protect workers from the health risks of extreme heat.
- Increase workplace and community resilience to extreme heat.
- Prioritize the most at-risk communities and workers in the response to extreme heat.
- Accelerate the transition to a 100 percent clean energy economy to reduce planet-warming pollution and slow climate change and rising temperatures.
Extreme heat has both health and economic consequences
Climate change-induced extreme heat threatens health and increases health care costs. Extreme heat affects everything from birth outcomes to mental well-being9 and leads to increased deaths from conditions such as heart and respiratory disease.10 According to the National Weather Service, extreme heat kills more Americans than any other kind of weather-related death in the United States.11 A 2023 CAP report estimated that each summer, “heat event days would be responsible for almost 235,000 emergency department visits and more than 56,000 hospital admissions for heat-related or heat-adjacent illness, adding approximately $1 billion in health care costs.”12 Alarmingly, heat-related emergency department visits increased across the United States during the summer of 2023 compared with other years.13 In Maricopa County, Arizona, where Phoenix is located, the county Department of Public Health reported 645 heat-associated deaths in 2023—an increase of 52 percent compared with 2022 and the most ever recorded in a single year.14
Every increase of 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) is estimated to increase heart disease death rates by 2.8 percent.15 As the climate continues to warm, deaths from stroke and heart attacks due to extreme heat could triple by 2050.16
Communities of color are disproportionately affected by extreme heat. The risk of death from extreme heat is highest among Black and American Indian and Alaska Native populations, who are disproportionately exposed to heat based on underlying inequities such as residential segregation in communities with urban heat islands and lack of tree cover, limited resources for cooling such as access to air conditioners, and fewer resources—including access to health care—to be treated for and to recover from health-related illness or injury.17
See also
Climate change is accelerating extreme heat conditions
The continuous spike in global temperatures is driving heat waves and other extreme weather events to increase in frequency, intensity, and duration.18 In 2023, Earth experienced its hottest year since record-keeping began, and according to scientists, likely the hottest in 125,000 years.19 Four consecutive days in July 2023 broke the record for the hottest day ever recorded on Earth.20 Global average sea surface temperature rose throughout 2023, reaching record high levels in July.21 Following the record-shattering summer, the United States experienced its warmest winter.22 Earth’s average temperature for 2023 hit 1.35 degrees Celsius (2.43 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter than the preindustrial average from 1850 to 1900.23 The planet is rapidly warming to the 1.5-degree Celsius limit to avoid catastrophic and irreversible impacts to the climate.24 Even taking the El Niño climate pattern into account, Earth’s temperature reached 0.2 degrees Celsius (0.36 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter than climate modelers predicted.25 This year is predicted to be even hotter.26
From November 2022 through October 2023, 90 percent of the global population—7.3 billion people—experienced at least 10 days of extreme heat temperatures exacerbated by climate change.27 Moreover, 5.8 billion people—73 percent of the global population—experienced climate change-induced heat waves for more than 30 days.28 Looking at the scope of hazardous heat in 2023, 1 in 4 people worldwide faced dangerous heat waves boosted by climate change.29
Scientists predict that every region of the United States will experience hotter temperature extremes throughout the 21st century with the Southeast, Southwest, and Alaska likely to experience the biggest increases.30 During a 56-day heat wave in Houston in 2023, 22 consecutive days exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Austin, Texas, endured 45 consecutive days at or above 100 degrees Fahrenheit.31
Over the past 50 years, the number of days with temperatures above 95 degrees Fahrenheit and 100 degrees Fahrenheit in Houston and Austin, respectively, have increased by one month.32 If greenhouse gas emissions continue to grow, it is likely there will be 20 to 30 more days annually with temperatures above 90 degrees Fahrenheit across most of the country.33 The Southeast could endure even longer extreme heat waves with 40 to 50 more days of temperatures exceeding 90 degrees annually.34 However, immediate and bold action to meet the Biden administration’s goal to cut U.S. carbon pollution to half of peak levels by 2030 and to transition away from fossil fuels to a 100 percent clean energy economy by 2050 could help avoid the worst consequences of extreme heat.35
Extreme heat especially threatens outdoor workers and those who work in hot indoor settings
Some researchers estimate that the annual number of worker heat-related deaths is more likely in the thousands.
Extreme heat hazards are particularly concerning for outdoor workers and those working in facilities without sufficient cooling. Between 2011 and 2021, dozens of workers died each year from heat-related causes, adding up to more than 400 workers during that period.36 In 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 51 fatalities due to exposure to extreme temperatures and approximately 43 of those deaths specifically due to extreme heat.37 These numbers are likely undercounts, as doctors and patients may not always identify or recognize an illness as heat related, and employees may fail to associate illness with the heat.38 Furthermore, employers may face financial disincentives for reporting work-related injuries such as increased workers’ compensation costs, and thus may willfully fail to report.39 Accordingly, some researchers estimate that the annual number of worker heat-related deaths is more likely in the thousands.40
Heat-related health risks are greater in certain work environments, including outdoor settings such as agriculture, fishing, hunting, forestry, and construction.41 From 1992 to 2016, construction workers accounted for 36 percent of occupational heat-related deaths.42 Indoor workers, such as restaurant food preparation workers, are also at heightened risk if they are exposed to high temperatures. In California alone, seven workers died from indoor heat between 2010 and 2017.43 Since 2018, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has documented hospitalizations and heat-related deaths in close to 275 industries through workplace inspections and violations.44 In addition to settings previously mentioned, they include postal and delivery service, landscaping, restaurants, and warehousing.
America’s lowest-paid workers have five times as many heat-related injuries as its highest-paid workers.
As with other occupational hazards, risks compound for the most vulnerable workers. Hispanic, Black, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander workers; lower-income workers; and noncitizen immigrants are at particular risk in that they are both disproportionately exposed to hazardous working conditions, including extreme heat, and are already more likely to experience challenges in protecting themselves due to underlying inequities.45 America’s lowest-paid workers have five times as many heat-related injuries as its highest-paid workers.46 A 2021 examination by NPR and Columbia Journalism Investigations found that since 2010, Latinos have comprised one-third of all worker heat fatalities. Experts attribute that figure to overrepresentation in industries that have a higher risk of extreme heat exposure, such as agriculture and construction.47
Extreme heat has economic consequences for workers and employers as well. Heat stress decreases work productivity.48 A systematic review of the research found that 30 percent of workers who were exposed to heat stress during just one shift reported lost productivity.49 For instance, the California Heat Illness Prevention Study found that farmworkers’ work rates decreased as temperatures increased.50 Research from 2021 that used a 1986–2005 baseline period indicates that in Florida, annual labor productivity losses due to heat totaled approximately $11 billion from 1986 to 2005 and are projected to more than quadruple by 2050.51 Texas experiences average annual labor productivity losses of $30 billion—the greatest heat stress-related losses across the United States. According to this research, without any adaptations, annual state losses in 2050 are projected to increase to approximately $110 billion.52
Without action, productivity losses could reach $200 billion by 2030 and $500 billion by 2050.
Heat-induced declines in labor productivity account for $100 billion annually in the United States on average.53 Without action, productivity losses could reach $200 billion by 2030 and $500 billion by 2050. 54
Workers’ compensation claims also reflect extreme heat-related health and economic labor costs. According to claims that New York City workers submitted to the state Workers’ Compensation Board during summer months from 2002 to 2022, workers were 7 percent more likely to be injured while working when the temperature reached 85 degrees; when the temperature reached 95 degrees, it increased to 8 percent.55 For the state as a whole, workers’ compensation claims from May through September of 2017 to 2021 found worker injuries were 45 percent more frequent and 20 percent more severe on days that met the National Weather Service’s extreme heat classifications compared with days that did not meet those criteria.56
See also
Farmworkers are particularly vulnerable to extreme heat
More than 2 million farmworkers play a vital role in sustaining the American agricultural industry and in feeding families across the United States.57 Their employers, however, often fail to provide them with adequate protective resources to reduce their risk of heat-related injury.58 Heat-related stress could lead to dehydration, heat-related illness, and even death if not treated properly. Accordingly, research shows that farmworkers are 35 times more likely to die from heat-related stress than workers in other industries.59
Farmworkers also experience more underlying inequities—such as higher rates of poverty, more disparities in health care access, and in many cases, more hurdles associated with immigration status—compared with workers in other industries.60 In the United States, 45 percent of all farmworkers are undocumented immigrants and as a result face unique vulnerabilities that further exacerbate the difficulties they encounter in the workplace.61 For example, undocumented farmworkers face cultural and language barriers and are often unable to qualify for employer-based health insurance. As a result, the National Agriculture Worker Survey finds that more than half of farmworkers encounter significant barriers to receiving appropriate health care, including the costs of medical visits and time off from work for appointments.62
Although undocumented workers have the same right to safe workplaces, and it is illegal for employers to retaliate based on claims the workers might make related to unsafe working conditions, undocumented workers may be less familiar with worker rights. Accordingly, they may be less likely to report violations—including extreme heat abuses—over concerns that they will be threatened with job loss, deportation, and barriers to accessing services.63 The U.S. Department of Homeland Security took an important step to help address this issue in 2023 when it simplified and accelerated the process for undocumented workers who report labor violations to request temporary protection from deportation, protecting them from retaliation from abusive employers.64 An important step further would be for Congress to establish a pathway to citizenship to ensure that undocumented farmworkers have adequate job security, protection from deportation, and empowerment to report work violations.
During their work days, farmworkers also face disincentives to taking unpaid breaks, especially when employers pay workers depending on the quantity of produce that they pick.65 Policymakers and employers should make paid breaks part of heat-illness prevention protocols because unpaid breaks create an incentive to work intensively, even when heat stress may become a factor, further jeopardizing workers’ well-being.
Policymakers must act with urgency to protect workers
Above-average heat is expected this summer66 throughout the United States. Policymakers must step up to provide protections for workers as the hotter months approach.
Federal actions to date
Employers are legally obligated to protect workers covered by the federal Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act from known hazards that are likely to cause serious physical harm or death, such as extreme heat. Such protections include restricting work in high heat conditions without adequate protections.67 However, OSHA fines are very low, meaning that most workers lack adequate protection from heat illness and injury in spite of the act.68
Only five states guarantee workers access to rest, shade, and water—three commonsense and essential heat-related illness prevention measures.
Critically, there is no heat-specific federal law that protects workers in America from extreme heat. And only five states (California, Colorado, Minnesota, Oregon, and Washington)69 guarantee workers access to rest, shade, and water—three commonsense and essential heat-related illness prevention measures .70 Workers who experience extreme heat are theoretically protected by the OSH Act’s General Duty Clause, which is intended to fill the gap in addressing recognized hazards that OSHA hasn’t yet regulated, and allows state authorities to inspect worksites for unregulated violations.71 However, there is no consistent federal standard for determining what constitutes a serious heat hazard, meaning the General Duty Clause requires regulators to meet a higher burden of proof to establish heat as the cause of injury or death. This has resulted in a lack of enforcement and instances of OSHA only issuing penalties for heat hazards after a worker has died or been injured at work.72
In September 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor released a Climate Action Plan that identified reducing heat-related worker illness and injury as a priority.73 The following month, OSHA announced its intent to start the rulemaking process for a heat-specific workplace standard.74 Such a standard would hold employers across the country to the same requirements for mitigating exposures to extreme heat and would clearly establish the actions employers must take to protect employees from being exposed to dangerous levels of heat. A specific federal standard is expected to significantly increase employers’ actions on this front.75 However, OSHA is early in the rulemaking process, which averages more than seven years from start to finish.76
Given that extreme heat risks are growing each year, a group of senators and representatives introduced bicameral companion legislation in July 2023—both called the Asuncion Valdivia Heat Illness and Fatality Prevention Act—to require OSHA to issue an interim final rule within one year of the act’s passage.77 This legislation spells out that the interim final rule must adopt an enforceable standard to protect workers in high-heat environments with measures such as paid breaks in cool spaces, access to water, limitations on time exposed to heat, emergency response for workers with heat-related illness, and training for employees on heat illness risk factors and symptoms.78
OSHA also has taken some additional steps to protect workers from extreme heat exposure as its rulemaking process proceeds. In April 2022, OSHA launched a three-year National Emphasis Program (NEP), giving OSHA the authority to proactively assess workplaces for indoor and outdoor heat-related hazards and to prevent and reduce the incidence of occupational heat-related illnesses and injuries.79 The NEP supplements OSHA’s efforts to address complaints or severe incident reports, although states that have OSHA-approved emphasis programs are not required to participate. The NEP targets workplaces in high-risk industries—such as the construction, maritime, and agriculture industries—which according to OSHA have the highest incidence rates of heat-related illnesses and fatalities and heat-related General Duty Clause violations.80
In the summer of 2023, the U.S. Department of Labor issued its first heat hazard alert.81 The heat alert reminded employers of their legal responsibility to protect workers in high heat conditions by, at a minimum, providing workers with adequate water, rest breaks, and a cool rest area. The alert also recommended that employers allow all new employees to acclimatize to their environment.82 It further stepped up enforcement measures through OSHA’s NEP, including proactive inspections, and reaffirmed workers’ rights to a safe and healthy workplace and to protection against retaliation.
Although these actions are important, regulators cannot sufficiently hold employers accountable for heat-related injuries without a federal heat safety standard. As a result of OSHA’s protracted rulemaking process, much of the responsibility for establishing heat protections lies with state legislatures and labor departments.
State action to date
Twenty-two states administer their own occupational safety and health programs, which have the power to set and enforce heat standards for private, state, and local government workers. Five of these states have enacted heat standards.83 Of these five, only Minnesota and Oregon have heat standards for indoor workers.84
While states such as Maryland and Nevada are moving to develop and adopt heat standards for workers, other states such as Texas and Florida have blocked heat protection for outdoor workers.85 In 2023, Texas legislators passed H.B. 2127, which bars cities and counties from passing regulations that are stricter than what is authorized under the state’s Labor Code, Business and Commerce Code, and other relevant codes.86 H.B. 2127 also overturned local rules such as ordinances passed in Austin87 and Dallas88 that mandated rest breaks for construction workers. Earlier this year, Florida’s governor signed legislation prohibiting cities and counties from creating heat protections such as water breaks and access to shade for outdoor workers.89
State and local policymakers, as well as employers, must act with far greater urgency to protect against the health and financial costs of extreme heat.
Policy recommendations
Policymakers must prioritize comprehensive approaches to mitigating the impacts of extreme heat on workers. These approaches should include reducing the greenhouse gas emissions causing more frequent extreme heat days; enacting and enforcing policies that protect workers from hazardous working conditions; and educating employers, workers, and the public about strategies to increase workplace and worker resilience to extreme heat.
Accelerate and expand federal and state efforts to protect workers, including speeding the adoption of a federal heat standard
OSHA must prioritize implementing a federal heat-specific workplace standard that articulates employers’ obligations for protecting workers. The National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health’s Heat Injury and Illness Prevention Work Group, charged with making recommendations to OSHA for heat injury and illness prevention rulemaking, highlighted key components that would go into such a standard, including the need for employers to develop written heat-illness prevention plans;90 train workers and supervisors to identify, prevent, respond to, and report hazards; monitor worksites; provide control measures such as water, shade, and breaks; and acclimatize workers.
OSHA regulations stipulate that OSHA must consult the Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health (ACCSH) before proposing any standards that affect the construction industry.91 At an ACCSH meeting on April 24, 2024, OSHA presented a regulatory framework for a heat-specific standard that would trigger certain requirements at or above certain heat indices.92 ACCSH recommended that OSHA publish its proposed rule to adopt such a standard as soon as possible as a signal to employers that the rule is forthcoming.
To help speed the process, the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs should expeditiously review OSHA’s proposed rule so that it can be published as soon as possible. Furthermore, congressional action on the Asuncion Valdivia Heat Illness and Fatality Prevention Act would add momentum by requiring OSHA to speed up its timeline for establishing a permanent, federal standard.93
In addition to establishing and enacting a federal heat standard, OSHA must have adequate funding and enforcement tools to ensure workers and employers are aware of and abiding by the standard. Congress has provided OSHA with flat funding of $632 million for fiscal year 2024—amounting to only $3.93 to protect each worker94—despite increasing workplace hazards. The AFL-CIO states that the number of OSHA inspectors decreased from 2022 to 2023, and the current staff are able to inspect each American workplace only once every 186 years.95 In addition to funding, OSHA must have the authority to impose sizable fines for serious violations and noncompliance with standards. Congress should pass the Protecting America’s Workers Act to update the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 and allow for significantly increasing penalties for violations that cause death or serious bodily injury, among other provisions.96
In the absence of a federal heat standard, states and localities will continue to play an important role in protecting workers from heat-related illness and injuries. To that end, more states should establish occupational heat standards to ensure that employers are adequately prepared and held accountable for mitigating risks associated with high temperatures.
A whole-of-government approach to extreme heat can allow states and federal agencies to leverage additional measures to protect workers. For example, agency labor contracts, including construction and highway contracts, can incorporate specific requirements for contractors to protect workers from heat-related illness. Public insurers can garner support for climate action, as did the New York State Insurance Fund, by analyzing the association between extreme heat and worker injuries as evidenced in worker compensation claims.97
Raise awareness about and promote voluntary actions among employers to protect workers from the health risks of extreme heat
While government standards are critical to advance worker protections, employers also have a legal responsibility to protect their workers. To that end, employers should have heat illness prevention plans, educate workers about their risks, and provide workers with ways to stay safe and healthy. Employers with outdoor workers can schedule work hours to account for midday heat, ensure access to air conditioning in indoor settings, rotate workers to avoid excessive radiant heat, provide sun hats, and train workers to monitor each other through buddy systems. Such training efforts must account for language barriers and the varying needs of workers with part-time or temporary schedules.98
Employers with higher-risk workplaces should also adopt acclimatization plans for new and returning workers to allow time for workers to build tolerance to heat.99 Failure to acclimatize is a significant risk factor for heat-related injury, with 50 percent to 70 percent of workers who die from extreme heat doing so during their first days of working in hot environments.100 High-risk setting employers should also adopt recommended strategies such as developing a heat alert medical monitoring program, providing workers with protective cooling clothing, and regularly monitoring heat.101
The federal government offers several tools to help employers protect their workers from extreme heat. For example, OSHA publishes a newsletter, Heat Source, as part of its Heat Illness Prevention Campaign.102 The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Weather Service, launched a Heat and Health Initiative in April 2024 emphasizing actions that people can take to protect themselves from heat illness.103 OSHA also publishes its HeatRisk forecast tool, which provides a nationwide, seven-day heat forecast that takes into account heat factors beyond temperature to identify unsafe conditions, and a HeatRisk dashboard to rank risk at any given time according to ZIP code.104 CDC clinical guidance supports clinicians in keeping at-risk people healthy, and materials such as the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s Heat Related Illness Poster and fast facts provide information in multiple languages that employers can provide to various subpopulations of workers.105
Unions, community organizations, and labor management partnerships also can play critical roles in educating workers on heat safety. OSHA’s Susan Harwood Training Grant program provides funding on a variety of issues, including those related to extreme heat. In fiscal year 2023, the program provided 11 grants—but none more than $160,000—to research institutions, labor groups, and community-based organizations that address heat-related illness.106 Congress should provide additional funding to OSHA to expand this small program. In January 2024, the American National Standards Institute approved the American Society of Safety Professionals’ first voluntary heat-related consensus standard, providing minimum requirements to protect construction and demolition workers from heat-related illness.107 The voluntary standard, developed with input from businesses, unions, and experts, includes a call for employers to implement stop work authority policies for heat. This would empower workers to stop work without retribution when they believe working conditions are hazardous.108 The voluntary standard109 also calls for heat triggers to be linked to the National Weather Service WetBulb Globe Temperature, which, unlike the heat index that includes only temperature and humidity, takes into account wind speed and sun exposure in calculating temperature.110
Increase workplace and community resilience to extreme heat
Improving community heat resilience supports workers. According to research, nighttime warming is associated with an increased risk of heat-related death.111 As a result, as temperatures increase, workers—particularly those who live in urban communities and those who lack resources such as air conditioning—may increasingly find that they lack opportunity to recover from daytime heat exposure, increasing the risk of heat-related death.
Urban environments are significantly hotter than their rural and suburban counterparts due to the heat island effect in which concrete, buildings, and other infrastructure absorb and reemit the sun’s heat more than landscapes with greenery and bodies of water.112 Strategies to reduce urban heat islands include planting trees and increasing green spaces, installing green or cool roofs and pavement materials that are reflective or permeable, and prioritizing development and conservation strategies that protect the natural environment.113 Communities and governments can increase their resilience to extreme heat by implementing these strategies to reduce urban heat islands.
The Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act made historic investments available to help cool neighborhood temperatures and reduce extreme heat risks, including establishing $1.5 billion for the Urban and Community Forestry Assistance Program to expand tree cover and green spaces in cities, where roughly 85 percent of Americans live and work.114 Programs such as the CDC’s Climate-Ready States and Cities Initiative, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program and the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Weatherization Assistance Program are supporting communities in implementing heat adaptation programs and improving heat resilience by lowering costs of air conditioning for low-income families and opening cooling centers.115 State and local policymakers should capitalize on countless federal funding opportunities created through the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) to build climate-resilient communities for all Americans.116
See also
Prioritize the most at-risk communities and workers in the response to extreme heat
On April 21, 2023, President Joe Biden signed an executive order directing federal agencies to advance environmental justice for all.117 This action marked a decisive step toward improving the lives of communities disproportionately affected by climate change by establishing an Office of Environmental Justice to spur and coordinate efforts across federal agencies.118
To advance economic justice, policymakers and advocates must prioritize low-income communities and communities of color, which are disproportionately affected by climate change,119 when implementing extreme heat mitigation and adaptation measures. This should include prioritizing vulnerable workers—among them low-income, Latino, Black, and immigrant workers—in the most vulnerable occupations.120 Federal agencies should target resources—including education, monitoring and enforcement, and protective equipment—to communities and industries whose workers are disproportionately at risk of heat-related hazards.
See also
Accelerate the transition to a 100 percent clean energy economy to rapidly reduce planet-warming pollution and slow climate change and rising temperatures
Experts predict that heat waves in the United States would be 50 percent less frequent by midcentury if the United States reduced carbon dioxide emissions a minimum of 33 percent by 2055. The Biden administration’s suite of bold climate actions, including the Inflation Reduction Act and the IIJA, have made historic strides in slashing greenhouse gas emissions and bringing the United States toward a clean energy economy. Reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by midcentury is essential to stabilize global temperatures at 1.5 degree Celsius of warming and avoid catastrophic climate change consequences.121
See also
Still, policymakers must adopt ambitious and sustained climate efforts at the state, local, and national levels to bring the United States to net-zero.122 This includes rapidly deploying clean energy, transitioning away from fossil fuels, and decarbonizing all sectors of the economy. Actions at the state and local levels will determine whether historic new federal investments are maximally benefiting their constituent communities and the climate. States, local governments, federal agencies, and other stakeholders can work together to advance the Inflation Reduction Act and IIJA’s implementation and future climate policy through building state and local capacity; enhancing technical assistance infrastructure; maximizing federal investments with complementary policies and consumer awareness; and addressing equity gaps and siting and permitting barriers. This must be accompanied by investments in low-income communities and communities of color, the creation of good-paying jobs, and reductions in harmful air pollutants.
Conclusion
With summer approaching and temperatures rising, federal and state policymakers cannot delay taking action to protect workers and to reduce the health and economic damages brought on by work exposure to extreme heat. The situation for farmworkers is especially urgent: Farmworkers contribute heavily to the U.S. agriculture industry and the nation’s food security, and their vulnerability to extreme heat in the workplace necessitates significant protection. To reflect this urgency, each stage of OSHA rulemaking must be sped up to establish a federal heat standard. In the meantime, state governments should enact and enforce strong heat standards. Such standards must require employers to implement effective heat prevention plans; monitor and correct for extreme heat exposures; educate workers about extreme heat dangers and ways to protect themselves; and use preventive measures such as paid rest breaks, water, and shade while working in hot conditions. Employers must also meet their obligation to protect workers and voluntarily implement strategies to safeguard their workers’ health and to ensure safe and productive workplaces.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank external experts who provided guidance for the report. The authors also wish to thank Shannon Baker-Branstetter, Andrea Ducas, Emily Gee, Debu Ghandi, Marquisha Johns, Cathleen Kelly, Karla Walter, and Mike Williams for their reviews, as well as Kennedy Andara, David Correa, Brian Keyser, and Kyle Ross for their fact-checking.