Climate change must be declared 'global health emergency': Lancet study

A Lancet study has reported that climate change should be declared a global health emergency to influence governments' policies. Published ahead of the COP 31 climate summit, the report found that heat was responsible for three million deaths between 2016 and 2023, with 68 percent of those deaths directly linked to climate change.

Executive Director Marina Romanello stated that the toll of heat-related deaths is equivalent to the entire population of Wales being wiped out in eight years. The researchers compiled heat-related deaths from states, subtracting those that would have occurred without climate change. Professor Ollie Jay explained that climate change intensifies and increases the frequency of extreme heat events.

Economic costs associated with warming include a loss of more than $1 trillion annually in worker productivity, with Southeast Asia and Africa bearing the brunt, losing 3.9 percent and 3.2 percent of their GDP, respectively. Progress has been made in integrating health systems to anticipate extreme events, and investment in clean energy has reached $2.1 trillion in 2025, surpassing investments in fossil fuels.

However, fossil fuels still account for 80 percent of global energy, causing 2.73 million annual deaths from air pollution. Despite a sevenfold increase in climate-related medical research funding to $316 million in 2024, 84 percent of these funds go to researchers in wealthy nations, even though the least developed countries are most affected by climate-related health threats.

The researchers faced challenges due to the disappearance of certain data sources, such as US fossil fuel subsidies, and noted that geopolitical instability has pushed climate change and its health impacts into the background.