Wildfires are getting worse thanks to climate change, but they're not the only thing that will dent the US's GDP. Peter J. Wilson/Shutterstock

Even with the Paris agreement in place, much of the world is set to warm above the 2°C (3.6°F) limit by as soon as 2030, 70 years before schedule. Scientists generally tend to focus on the environmental destruction this will no doubt bring to the planet, from the Arctic to the Middle East. However, as a new UN-produced study serves to remind us, climate change will also severely damage the global economy.

The paper focuses on the effect that rising temperatures will have on productivity in 43 nations around the world. The hotter an environment is, the less physically and mentally able workers will be, and the less they will be able to contribute to the economy. In addition, rising mercury disrupts agriculture, upsets food chains, causes machinery to malfunction, and destroys infrastructure via powerful natural disasters.

Consequently, the US alone will lose $2 trillion by 2030. This is mainly due to the heat stress effects on low-skill agriculture and manufacturing jobs, where physical labor will be severely hampered. China and India, two growing, powerhouse economies, will lose $450 billion each.

The estimates were obtained by comparing current GDP growth in these countries and calculating how various industries will be affected by hotter working hours and natural disasters. Sadly, they make for bad reading for most. Southeast Asia is heavily affected by dangerous climate change, including Malaysia (7.3 percent of GDP lost), Thailand (7.2 percent lost), the Philippines (7.1 percent lost), and Indonesia (7 percent lost).

Equator-hugging Africa, despite producing considerably less carbon emissions than Asia, North America, Europe, and the Middle East, appears to suffer particularly badly. The Democratic Republic of the Congo will lose 8.5 percent of its GDP, for example. Ghana will lose 8.9 percent.

However, it’s island nations that are clearly the worst affected, thanks to rising temperatures, powerful cyclones, and rising sea levels. Tuvalu will lose 23.1 percent of its GDP, and Vanuatu will lose a remarkable 44.8 percent of its GDP.

Vanuatu, an already vulnerable island, is going to be savaged by 2030. Janelle Lugge/Shutterstock