Extreme heat and flooding could erase US$65 billion in apparel export earnings from four Asian countries by 2030, as workers struggle under high temperatures and factories close, research from Schroders and Cornell University showed on Wednesday.
The study also mapped out the supply chains of six unidentified global apparel brands operating in the four countries studied – Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan and Vietnam – and found all six would be hit materially. For one sample brand that could amount to 5 per cent of annual group operating profits.
The findings should act as a wake-up call to both an apparel industry facing significant financial costs, and to investors confronted with sparse information on companies’ exposures, the report’s authors told Reuters.
