For every one-degree Celsius (°C) rise in annual temperatures over average temperatures for the 1980-2000 period, Indian industrial plants likely produced 2% less revenue, according to a research paper co-authored by economists and experts from Delhi’s Indian Statistical Institute and the University of Chicago. The researchers used data from around 58,000 factories in India to arrive at the correlation.

With the government’s focus on transforming India into a manufacturing hub, the findings of the paper are significant.

Anant Sudarshan, South Asia Director, Energy Policy Institute, University of Chicago, said the effect of high temperatures on lower crop yields has been previously established. “This paper shows that rising temperatures can also hurt economic output in other sectors by reducing the productivity of human labour. The damage is greatest when already warm days become hotter,” Sudarshan said in a statement on Thursday.

The statement added if India wishes to succeed in becoming a manufacturing powerhouse using cheap labour, it needs to think hard about how to adapt to a hotter world…