Heat stress is driving Filipinos into a “climate poverty trap” where the poorest communities pay most for rising heat-related damages, according to a new report. In the Philippines, where extreme heat losses are estimated at around US$9.41 billion (P580 billion), that implies hundreds of millions to several billions of dollars in needed resilience investments. Yet while communities on the frontlines are already absorbing the everyday costs of heat — from medicines and missed work days to improvised cooling — public spending to protect them is stalling. The problem is structural as climate finance frameworks and cross‑cutting institutions remain mostly at the planning stage, rendering those most exposed to heat stress — informal, low‑income workers without social protection — practically invisible, it noted. The report said: “The general public will be doing much of the heavy lifting to adapt to increasingly destructive climate impacts, particularly heat stress, and the most vulnerable sectors are left to pay for their own survival as they keep the country afloat.”