AUTHORS:
Sarah Opitz-Stapleton

This study confirmed that temperatures have increased in the past few decades and that climate change will lead to more heat waves, a longer hot season, and stressful working temperatures in the future for Da Nang. The number of very hot days in which the heat index exceeds 34°C, the threshold currently set by Vietnam’s Ministry of Health at which indoor workers engaged in light, desk-based work, has been increasing in the past few decades, though the number of nights in which the heat index exceeded 28°C decreased. According to projections from multiple GCMs, each running a low (RCP 4.5) and high (RCP 8.5) emission scenario, climate change is highly likely to increase day and night ambient and heat index temperatures. In the future, average heat index temperatures during the day are likely to be ~35°C or higher in all seasons – this will have a profound impact on human health and the labor productivity of Da Nang’s workers. The length of the hot season is likely to increase by two to three months a year by 2050.

This study was undertaken by the Institute for Social and Environmental Transition-International (ISET-International), with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation. To read this study, please go to this link.

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