As diplomats gather in air-conditioned rooms for COP31, new climate pledges can’t come soon enough for the outdoor workers keeping host country Türkiye running. Extreme weather is a daily threat to their health and livelihoods, and no one, they say, seems to care.
The vision for this month’s UN-led conference in Antalya is to turn climate commitments into action on the ground, with key themes including nature and biodiversity protection, sustainable food systems, and resilient cities and infrastructure. For outdoor workers, however, the need for climate action is measured not in distant conference pledges but in the temperatures they are forced to endure on the job.
In Türkiye, summer 2026 was 0.4°C warmer than the 1991-2020 average, and 2025 was marked by record-shattering heatwaves, with temperatures reaching a blistering 50.5°C in Silopi, in the southeastern Şırnak province.
Levent Kurnaz, a climate scientist at Boğaziçi University’s Center for Climate Change and Policy Studies, said he could not attribute any single occurence directly to climate change, but the likelihood and intensity of extreme weather events was increasing. This matches a global trend: Heatwaves are hotter and longer in many parts of the world, as global warming threatens to push temperatures beyond the 1.5°C limit set by the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Some 4.56 million people were employed in agriculture across Türkiye in 2025. This figure does not account for other outdoor workers, including those in construction, transport, and street vending. And while there is no reliable figure for how many outdoor workers are exposed to dangerous levels of heat, in the run-up to COP31 several workers told The New Humanitarian they are left to cope with extreme temperatures with little or no support or protection from either the state or their employers.
The risks are not confined to Türkiye’s hottest regions. Even workers in the cooler, rainier Black Sea region say extreme weather is making outdoor labour increasingly difficult.
Abdülkadir Kahraman, 40, lives in Afyonkarahisar and travels to Kemalpaşa, in the eastern Black Sea province of Artvin, to work in the tea harvest. He said the heat during last year’s harvest was so intense that “we came close to fainting many times”. Türkiye recorded its driest year since 1964 in 2025 , while 2024 was its hottest.
Learning to adapt, if you can
In some parts of the country, workers are able to adapt – at least somewhat – to the extreme heat.
Behice Karabulut, 45, has worked in the fields of western İzmir province in Anatolia since she was seven years old. She told The New Humanitarian by phone that the heat during the August-October pepper harvest has notably worsened over the past four or five years. In the past, work hours were from 8am to 5pm. In summer, they’ve moved earlier, starting around 6am.
Despite the change – implemented by workers, not employers – Karabulut said she has seen workers faint or begin to tremble after sweating heavily. Workers bring their own ice water, hats, or head coverings. “There are times when some bosses do not even provide water,” she said.
Kahraman said workers in the tea fields start earlier in the day to avoid the heat. But delaying the harvest by even a day or two reduces the quality of the tea, putting pressure on them to keep going in hot conditions.
Rain and hail also make working conditions worse. Some fields offer nowhere to shelter, and employers don’t provide boots or raincoats. “If you have the money, you buy them and wear them,” Karabulut said. “If you don’t, you get soaked through.”
According to the World Health Organization, heat stress can cause dehydration, fainting, and kidney and neurological problems. A WHO-cited review found that 35% of people frequently exposed to excess heat suffered occupational heat strain, although there are no statistics about how many people are impacted in Türkiye.
That said, Kurnaz, the climate scientist, did note recent reports documenting the growing toll of Türkiye’s extreme heat and humidity – including some deaths that may have been heat related – among outdoor workers in agriculture, construction, motorcycle delivery, and municipal services.
“These are preventable deaths,” Kurnaz said. “Simple measures such as water, shade, breaks, and stopping work during the hottest hours save lives.”
Exposed and unprotected
Umut Kocagöz, president of the Agricultural Workers’ Union (Tarım-Sen), said heavy rain has flooded seasonal workers’ camps, while extreme heat has led to illness and hospitalisation. He also pointed to inadequate water, breaks, and protective equipment as contributing to the problem.
Kocagöz said most are unable to ask for help or better conditions because “the vast majority of agricultural workers are not unionised and don’t even have social insurance [which would protect them in cases of injury or illness]”.
Delivery couriers are also heavily exposed to extreme weather conditions, as they zip around sweltering cities on motorbikes.
” The heat burns my whole body. I lose focus, my brain gets tired, and all sorts of things start going through my head. “
Ali Halefoğlu, who has been a courier in Türkiye’s largest city of Istanbul for five years, said rain and hail reduce visibility, fog up helmet visors, and increase braking distances. In extreme heat, wearing a helmet and protective clothing makes it harder to breathe and focus. “The heat burns my whole body. I lose focus, my brain gets tired, and all sorts of things start going through my head,” he said.
But taking a break means lost income.
Halefoğlu works at least 10-12 hours a day, and while some delivery platforms limit the distance drivers can drive in heavy rain as a safety precaution, there are no such protections for the heat.
Mesut Çeki, a co-founder of the Courier Rights Association who also works as a courier, said some cities have introduced bans on motorbike deliveries during heavy rain. But without income protection for drivers forced off the road, he considers them only “half a victory”.
“Every day a courier does not work or deliver a package, they fall further into the red,” Çeki said, adding that courier companies usually charge drivers for protective equipment like branded raincoats.
While systematic data on the impact of extreme weather on couriers and their risk of crashes is lacking, Çeki said: “Couriers may not use the term climate crisis, but they feel it on their skin.”
A major delivery platform did not respond by the deadline to questions about its extreme-weather policies, income support for couriers, and safety data. Its name is being withheld from publication to protect the sources interviewed.
Poorly implemented labour laws
Türkiye has occupational health and safety laws, but labour advocates say they are not always enforced. The country’s Occupational Health and Safety Law No. 6331 requires employers to assess and prevent workplace risks, but there are no specific regulations setting binding limits for occupational heat exposure, according to the Turkish Medical Association and the United Metalworkers’ Union. The energy workers’ union, Enerji-Sen, is calling for workloads to be adjusted to weather conditions, more frequent breaks, and work to be suspended when conditions become dangerous.
Şeref Özcan, an occupational health and safety specialist and retired chief labour inspector at Türkiye’s Ministry of Labour and Social Security, now volunteers as an adviser to labour unions. He said that while climate change may be intensifying extreme weather, many of the underlying problems facing workers are longstanding.
Adverse weather can impair concentration and make workplace hazards harder to spot, Özcan said. Extreme heat can also increase the risk of construction workers falling from dangerous heights. “Working hours, breaks, work stoppages, and other protective measures are known, but they are not implemented,” he said.
Türkiye’s Ministry of Labour and Social Security did not respond by the deadline to questions about thresholds for suspending outdoor work, climate-related workplace inspections, or whether protections for workers already affected by extreme weather would be discussed at COP31.
While diplomats fly into climate summits and debate in temperature-controlled rooms, outdoor workers face the reality on the ground. From altered schedules and lost income to self-funded safety gear, the real cost of climate change is being quietly offloaded onto the workforce. In Anatolia, the country’s agricultural heartland, water management policies and relentless drought are even opening up sinkholes. As entire fields collapse, the climate crisis threatens to wipe out farming jobs altogether.
Across the country, workers face a constant, agonising choice between their income and their personal safety – a decision no one should have to make. Olcay Karabulut, president of the Istanbul branch of Enerji-Sen, notes that meter readers cover long distances and climb the city’s stairs, even in peak heat. He said workers can fall ill, suffer nosebleeds, or come close to fainting. As Karabulut put it: “Finishing the job matters, of course, but no job is more important than a worker’s health and life.”
This article is republished from thenewhumanitarian under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Jordanian-Palestinian writer and humanitarian communications professional
