This is a CATCH story<\/p>
This story is part of Dialogue Earth\u2019s work on the Community Adaptations to City Heat (CATCH) project, in partnership with Boston University. The project is funded by Wellcome. All Dialogue Earth content is editorially independent.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
According to a report<\/a> published in May, nearly half of the world\u2019s population had suffered at least 30 days of extreme heat due to climate change in the previous 12 months. The report defines extreme heat as temperatures that are \u201chotter than 90% of temperatures observed in their local area over the 1991-2020 period\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many studies document the health problems that result from exposure to heat around the world, including immediate issues such as dehydration and heatstroke, and longer-term problems such as kidney failure. But there are few that address the issues faced specifically by those whose place of work is the streets, such as market traders or street vendors. This is according to Nash Tysmans, who works as Asia coordinator for Streetnet International, which brings together street vendors\u2019 unions in 55 countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This lack of data and interpretation \u2013 especially in the Global South \u2013 makes it difficult to gauge the scale of the problem facing vendors, she says. Anecdotal reports suggest informal workers in general, and street vendors in particular, face growing pressure from heat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor them, climate change is already palpable. It exacerbates the precarious conditions in which they already worked. People are noticing the effects on their health and also on their income,\u201d says Tysmans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She led a field investigation<\/a> with Oxfam that spoke with dozens of vendors in Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. Some 77% of interviewees highlighted the risks that climate change poses to their health and their businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lee points out that personal protective equipment can be used to help workers cope with heat. This includes cooling vests, bandanas and fans. During extreme conditions, cities can declare \u201cheat emergencies\u201d and set up assistance centres where people can find cool refuge. Longer term solutions being studied around the world include the provision of shade in cities. Which solutions work best in which cities is an increasingly urgent question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While street vendors across much of Asia have long faced floods and storms that threaten their lives and businesses, heat has also become a chronic problem. The continent is warming almost twice<\/a> as fast as the global average, according to the World Meteorological Organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As well as the health problems this brings, it can cripple street vendors\u2019 income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen we talk to them, they mention economic losses first,\u201d says Tysmans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fresh food rots faster in heat, driving up costs while lowering the prices many vendors can charge. High temperatures also drive away customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPeople don\u2019t go out during the hottest times of the day, which always coincide with the working hours of vendors. Many choose to open at night, but the flow of people is not the same,\u201d says Tysmans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the study coordinated by Tysmans, some vendors suffer a 30-40% drop in income during extreme-heat events. When you add in the extra costs of ice and water, the economic impact is even greater. And poverty adds to health problems, making it harder for people to eat healthily and seek medical treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the places hardest hit by extreme heat globally is India. In the city of New Delhi, 33.8 million people have to deal with temperatures that last year hit a record 49C<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Delhi has around 652,000<\/a> street vendors, of whom 94% of men and 46% of women report working more than 48 hours per week. That is according to research published last year by Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing & Organizing (Wiego).<\/p>\n\n\n\n During heatwaves, over half of the vendors experience headaches, dehydration, fatigue and cramps, according to a 2024 survey<\/a> by Greenpeace and India\u2019s National Hawker Federation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like many other densely populated cities, Delhi has drawn up emergency heat plans to try and deal with the problem. The 2024\/25 action plan<\/a> developed last year identifies street vending as among the most vulnerable sectors. It recommends more health centres, improved water supply and the promotion of night-time trading. But, again, a lack of data complicates action. There are no clear records of street vendors or their distribution, making it difficult to determine where to set up health centres or improve access to water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jorge Peralta is the secretary general of Guatemala\u2019s National Federation of Independent Workers and Vendors (Fentravig). He represents more than 125,000 vendors across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLast year, I went to a forum in Medell\u00edn that blew my mind,\u201d he tells Dialogue Earth, referring to the forum of the General Union of Informal Workers, which is based in Colombia. The 2024 meeting featured a presentation on the effects of climate change on health. \u201cThere, I understood that climate change generates migration, that constant sun exposure increases the risk of skin cancer and affects the entire dynamic of our work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Guatemala City\u2019s high altitude means temperatures of 30C are rare. But the union leader says the city has experienced heatwaves<\/a> in recent years that can reach 33C, while elsewhere in the country temperatures of 40C have been recorded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This creates problems for vendors concentrated in established markets. These structures are often aging and ill-prepared for heat or extreme storms. \u201cThe premises are old, and earthquakes and rain make them even more vulnerable,\u201d says Peralta. \u201cThe roofs are made of sheet metal and burn everyone below [when it gets hot]. But street vendors are more vulnerable because they are more exposed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Peralta believes one major problem is that street vendors are informal workers, largely operating outside the usual systems of taxation, labour laws, contracts and controlled working conditions. For him, the formalisation of their employment is the first step on the road to adaptation. This means paying taxes, and having access to health insurance, electricity and water services, career progression and holidays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Patrick Kane, Streetnet representative for Latin America, says street vendors suffer double victimisation: \u201cFirstly, because they are excluded from the formal economic system and its benefits, but also because of the risks of climate change and the fact that they have no protection.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Guatemala and some other countries, trade unions are driving action to mitigate the heat, Kane says. The main measure associated with adaptation is formalisation of employment, but they are also proposing initiatives such as hydration points and environmental education. \u201cIn Uruguay and Brazil, there is also a lot of discussion about climate justice,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every five years, the countries of the Paris Agreement must update their climate action plans to show greater ambition<\/a>. Current commitments made in these plans, known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), would only limit global warming to between 2.6C and 3.1C<\/a> over the course of the century \u2013 far from the Paris targets of 1.5C or 2C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Little mention is made of informal employment in many of the new plans published so far this year. The only country to include it as an issue in Latin America is Ecuador. Within its NDC, job losses and informal work are identified as part of the structural factors that affect society and make it more vulnerable. The NDC does not contain explicit policies to address the situation of street vendors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One country where formality has proven advantageous for adaptation is Uruguay. Gabriela Calandria, leader of the Association of Special Market Vendors in Montevideo, tells Dialogue Earth that heat has brought several problems to street vendors, or feriantes<\/em>, as they are called there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe have already recorded 15 cases of skin cancer, there are people who become dehydrated and there was even someone who suffered a heart attack,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But street vendors in Calandria\u2019s country have several advantages over those in others: \u201cHere, we are very included by the state. We are regulated by the local government. And we are not informal. We pay taxes, almost all of us.\u201d They also have access to facilities such as covered market areas, medical insurance and pensions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Calandria says this situation is unique: no other country in Latin America has these kinds of conditions. \u201cAlthough the sun beats down on us, we are protected.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Leaders and scientists are seeking solutions to the health and income problems that extreme heat causes for Global South food stall traders <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50000479,"featured_media":60106292,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[761],"tags":[50041595,551,50042413,50040749],"hashtags":[],"country":[50000025,50003622,20000111],"class_list":["post-60106280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate","tag-global-heating","tag-health","tag-heat-adaptation","tag-livelihoods","country-colombia","country-guatemala-2","country-india"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDisease, economic losses and emergency plans<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Vulnerability compounded by insecurity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Formalisation as solution<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"open](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Vegetable-market-in-Guatamala_Ton-Koene_Alamy_3A6FK4T.jpg\")
<\/div>