Health threats of climate change reach record-breaking levels, report says

A new report by global health experts has found that climate change is raising temperatures to dangerous levels, resulting in more deaths and the spread of infectious diseases.

The Lancet Countdown report published on Wednesday found that people in every country face record-breaking threats to health and survival from the rapidly changing climate.

Conducted by 122 leading global experts, it shows that heat-related deaths, food insecurity, and the spread of infectious diseases caused by the climate crisis have reached record levels.

"Once again, last year broke climate change records, with extreme heatwaves, deadly weather events, and devastating wildfires affecting people around the world,” says Dr Marina Romanello, executive director of the report at University College London.

She says the evidence shows that climate change “is a fundamental health issue" and no individual or economy on the planet is immune to it.

“We're seeing that the death of a very vulnerable age group of people over 65 years of age that is due to extreme heat exposure have increased,” she says.

“We're also seeing, as a result of extreme heat exposure, that people's capacity to work outdoors is increasingly limited. And the health of workers is being put at risk."

The authors found that in 2023, people were exposed to, on average, an unprecedented 50 more days of health-threatening temperatures than expected without climate change.

They also say that the higher frequency of heatwaves and droughts was associated with 151 million more people experiencing moderate or severe food insecurity in 124 countries in 2022.

"Almost 50 per cent of the global land area is now affected by extreme droughts. And we've seen what this looks like in terms of the threats to people's health,” says Romanello.

“In cases like we've seen in Somalia in the Horn of Africa, that acute hunger situation that was exacerbated by the drought. So the health implications of all that are enormous."

Ahead of the COP29 climate summit in November, the experts are calling on governments to redirect the trillions of dollars spent on fossil fuels towards protecting people’s health, lives, and livelihood.

“There are resources that could be used to strengthen our health systems to support vulnerable communities. Those are resources that should not be going to perpetuating the use, the expansion of fossil fuels," says Romanello.

"They could very easily be redirected towards the promotion of access to clean, renewable energy that over 700 billion people globally don't have access to and relieving energy poverty.”

The authors argue that the findings must force a global health-centred transformation of financial systems – shifting resources from the fossil fuel-based economy towards a zero-emissions future.

They say this will deliver rapid health and economic benefits through improved energy access and security, cleaner air and water, healthier diets and lifestyles, and more sustainable job opportunities.