Global heat stress is rising, threatening billions: study | News | Eco-Business | Asia Pacific

Nature & Climate Perspective

**Accelerating global heat stress degrades microclimate resilience and threatens critical ecosystem services across terrestrial and coastal biomes. **

• Thermal strain disrupts forest carbon sequestration capacity by increasing vapor pressure deficits and triggering accelerated canopy dieback.
• Increased extreme heat events destabilize LULUCF baseline assumptions, compounding local biodiversity loss and diminishing long-term carbon sink permanence.
• Thermal stress on freshwater and coastal ecosystems compromises blue carbon retention, reducing natural buffers against compound climate impacts.

Market & Policy Outlook

**Escalating physical heat risks force tightening regulatory mandates and increase re-evaluation of carbon asset permanence under market quality standards. **

• Regulatory frameworks are shifting to enforce mandatory physical risk reporting, directly influencing sovereign climate adaptation funding and Article 6.2 cooperation mechanisms.
• Extreme heat threats to labor productivity and supply chains are compelling corporates to integrate physical risk metrics into their SBTi climate transition and Scope 3 strategies.
• Carbon project registries face pressure to align with ICVCM Core Carbon Principles (CCPs) by expanding risk buffer pools to safeguard credits against thermal-induced project reversals.