Fiber-based laser heating systems offer high flexibility and are increasingly used in high-pressure/high-temperature research. Previous fiber-based laser heating systems were based on lasers delivering radiation with 1-μm wavelength that show unfavorable heating characteristics for many sample materials. We report on the development and first experiments of a waveguide (fiber)-based CO₂-laser heating system that can be used in a flexible manner for high-temperature research and for high-pressure/temperature experiments when combined with diamond-anvil cells. The waveguide-based CO₂-laser heating system allows convenient heating of optically transparent samples without the need for adding an additional laser absorber. In a pilot experiment, the flexible heating system has been installed on a Brillouin scattering system to measure high-temperature sound-wave velocities in single-crystal MgO. The waveguide-based CO₂-laser heating system offers perspectives for a variety of scientific applications, most importantly those that require the use of synchrotron facilities where space is limited and flexible solutions are required.