The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on December 4 launched a new initiative to better understand and invest in adaptation to the impacts of heat stress on women and girls across Asia and the Pacific.
The ADB Tajikistan Resident Mission (TJRM) says that under the new technical assistance program, ADB will research how the growing threat of heat stress affects women and identify specific policies, actions, and investments that can help governments reduce the impacts of heat on women and girls. The program will be implemented in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Tajikistan.
“We are on course for the warmest year on record and in Asia and the Pacific, this is placing unprecedented strain on women, on their economic productivity, their role in food security, and the infrastructure that women use,” said ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa at the launch of the initiative at COP28. “Development is no longer possible without addressing the consequences of climate change such as extreme heat—and we must focus on women."
Extreme heat has been linked to more than 650 billion hours of annual labor losses worldwide, equivalent to about 148 million full-time jobs—a scale of disruption comparable to the COVID-19 pandemic. Women are disproportionately affected by these rising temperatures, facing life-threatening conditions and substantial socioeconomic losses.
The initiative marks ADB’s commitment to integrating heat action-planning into all new operations in vulnerable regions, focusing on enhancing women’s climate resilience and advocating for gender-responsive measures.
The program aligns with the bank’s ambition to provide U$100 billion in climate financing from its own resources from 2019 to 2030, including US$34 billion for adaptation. In 2022, ADB committed US$7.1 billion of climate finance, including US$4.3 billion for mitigation and US$2.8 billion for adaptation. The bank mobilized an additional US$548 million in climate finance from the private sector last year.
Established in 1966, the Asian Development Bank is owned by 68 members—49 from the region.
