Climate change is making work more difficult and dangerous for billions of people, the International Labour Organisation said on Thursday.

In Europe and Central Asia, the proportion of people exposed to excessive heat at work is low by global standards.

But this has increased more than in any other region of the world over the past 20 years, the ILO said.

Heat affects not only people who work outdoors in fields or construction sites.

However, some, like firefighters, are employed in factories or have to wear protective suits.

Almost 22.9 million people experience accidents due to heat at work every year, and almost 19,000 die as a result, the report said.

Meanwhile, 26.2 million people live with chronic kidney problems because they do not drink enough fluid at work.

Once temperatures reach 32 degrees Celsius, someone doing manual labour has to drink 0.85 litres of water per hour.

In 2020, 29 per cent of workers in the Europe and Central Asia were exposed to excessive heat at times. The region spans from Portugal through Afghanistan to the western border of China.

The ILO said this is 17.3 per cent more than 20 years ago.

In all other regions of the world, the proportion was already significantly higher in 2020 and has risen less sharply.

The largest proportion is in Africa, where 90.2 per cent of people are exposed to excessive heat at work at times, followed by the Arab states with 83.6 per cent.

In total, 2.4 billion people worldwide are confronted with such heat.

(dpa/NAN)