A brick factory on the outskirts of Dhaka. Brick imports from South Asia to the UK are rapidly increasing, but a combination of carbon intensive production and long distance shipping emissions makes their carbon footprint far greater than domestic bricks.
Bangladeshi brick workers collect soil to mould bricks.
A brick factory labourer covered in brick dust. The industry is renowned for the difficult and unhealthy conditions brick workers must endure.
Workers collect fired bricks in a brick factory in Narsingdi, near Dhaka.
A Bangladeshi brick worker rests after a hard day’s work. The brick industry both in South Asia is notoriously unhealthy and physically draining.
A young brick worker transports bricks near Dhaka. Child labour is commonplace throughout the global brick industry.
A Bangladeshi brick worker passes fires bricks to a colleague in a traditional kiln. The UK imported almost 25 million bricks from South Asia in 2019.
Workers collect fired bricks in a brick factory in Narsingdi, near Dhaka.
A worker covered in brick dust. Brick dust is a key source of environmental degradation, reducing agricultural productivity in the vicinity of the kiln.
Brick workers arrange bricks for firing. This traditional system of brick production is largely unchanged for centuries.
Workers stacking unfired bricks. Many workers in the South Asian brick industry are debt bonded, entering the industry as a last resort after crop failure or personal tragedy.
A brick factory on the outskirts of Dhaka. Brick factories like this generate air pollution and excess heat that are damaging to local people and agriculture.
Brick workers in a traditional kiln. Brick factories like this generate large amounts of carbon, as well as air pollution and excess heat that are damaging to local people and agriculture, often forcing migration from the local area.
A garment sector dump on the outskirts of the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.
A garment sector rubbish dump in Cambodia, seen from above. Many of the brands whose waste ends up here have zero waste to landfill commitments. Yet a lack of independent regulation means that environmental abuses, even on this scale, go unreported.
Waste pickers work at a landfill site for the garment sector in Cambodia. The garment sector is the country’s biggest industry, providing 4% of UK garments.
Workers scale an electricity pylon in Cambodia. After devastating droughts curtailed the country’s sustainable energy plan, a rapid switch to coal power will see an additional 70,000 tons of coal burning added to the annual carbon footprint of UK garment imports.
A man fishes near a hydropower dam in Cambodia. Cambodia has recently begun a transition away from renewables and towards a predominantly coal powered grid.
A deforested landscape in Cambodia. This area was until recently entirely covered by forest, but after two decades of one of the world’s fastest rates of deforestation, little now remains. Despite this, the garment industry continues to source firewood from the area.
Rice farmers near a factory complex in Kampong Speu providing garments to the UK market. Water and air pollution, as well as overuse of water resources, are common problems in the industry.
A waste burner attached to an exporting garment factory. Waste burning is common practice in the Cambodian garment industry, often being used to generate power for the factory.
Smoke rises from a garment factory in Cambodia. Expensive mains electricity means that many garment factories produce power by burning garments or wood.
A wood depot outside a major exporting garment factory in Cambodia. At full capacity, large factories like this one burn thousands of tons of forest wood every week to generate power for production processes.
Truck drivers unload wood at night in Kandal province. Forest wood harvesting is illegal in Cambodia and has been cracked down on heavily since 2018, yet remains a common source of fuel in the garment and other industries.
A tea plantation worker stands in front of his house. The cracks behind him are the result of previous landslides nearby.
A worker points out the large cracks in his house. Tea plantation residents fear that their residences have been severely weakened by previous landslides nearby, leaving them vulnerable to collapse.
The cracked wall of a tea plantation worker’s house. Many houses are now so weakened by landslides that they are impossible to repair.
A tea plantation worker in the Sri Lankan highlands. Older workers report substantial changes to the climate of the area since their youth.
A tea plantation worker holds a scale for weighing tea. The tea industry is already being hit hard by Sri Lanka’s changing climate.
A tea plantation worker rests after a day of work. Behind her, red mud is revealed after a recent landslip.
A woman prepares food in a Sri Lankan tea plantation. As rainfall becomes more intense and less predictable, workers like this are increasingly vulnerable to landslides.
A worker picks tea on a British plantation. As rainfall becomes heavier and more intense under climate change, the frequency of landslides is progressively weakening workers’ residential housing. Many fear the next landslide will be their last.
A woman preparing to pick tea for export to the UK and other markets.
Storm clouds gather behind a Sri Lankan tea plantation worker. As climate change increases the frequency of landslides faced by workers, decaying and unmaintained housing threatens to turn these environmental hazards into lethal disasters.
A Sri Lankan tea worker examines a memorial for those lost in a 2014 landslide. Once a rare occurrence, climate change-linked changed to the intensity of rainfall are making them more common and more lethal features of tea plantations.
The aftermath of a landslide at a tea plantation. In the lead up to the lethal Meeriyabedda landslide of 2014, workers reported warning signs to company bosses, but were told to continue work. Workers today live in fear of a similar disaster.
A worker on a British tea plantation. Older workers report substantial changes to the climate of the Sri Lankan highlands, with rainfall now far more irregular and intense.