A new report from The Lancet, published ahead of the UN climate conference COP31 in November, calls on governments to declare climate change a global health emergency. The tenth edition of the report, prepared by 146 researchers from 30 countries, says extreme heat caused nearly 3 million deaths worldwide between 2016 and 2023. In 2023 alone, a record 710,000 people died from heat, with more than 70 percent of those deaths linked to human-caused climate change.
Marina Romanello, executive director of the Lancet Countdown health and climate research project, said the number of heat-related deaths in the eight years since the 2015 Paris Agreement is equivalent to the entire population of Wales. She said 68 percent of those deaths were directly caused by climate change. Professor Ollie Jay of the University of Sydney said climate change is increasing the intensity and frequency of extreme heat, and noted that last year more than half of the world’s land area experienced severe drought for at least one month.
The report also warns that climate change is damaging the global economy. Reduced labor capacity has cost the world more than $1 trillion a year over the past three years. Southeast Asia and Africa were hit hardest, with gross domestic product falling by 3.9 percent and 3.2 percent respectively. Europe recorded a 0.2 percent loss and the United States 1.5 percent.
On a positive note, 56 of the World Health Organization’s 194 member states have improved their health and early warning systems since 2016 to respond to extreme conditions. Clean energy investment rose to $2.1 trillion in 2025, double the amount invested in fossil fuels. Yet 80 percent of the world’s energy still comes from fossil fuels, and air pollution from burning them kills about 2.73 million people each year. Since 2016, however, reductions in fossil fuel pollution in at least 77 countries have prevented roughly 323,000 deaths.
The report says funding for climate-related medical research has increased sevenfold, reaching $316 million in 2024. But 84 percent of that money went to researchers in rich countries, it notes. Romanello said global geopolitical instability and a lack of public data, including on US fossil fuel subsidies, are obstructing research. The report stresses that countries must take integrated, long-term action to confront the health emergency created by climate change.
Original Source: https://assam.nenow.in/lancet-heat-deaths-climate-report-estimates-3-million-global-deaths-from-extreme-heat-between-2016-and-2023-urging-action-before-cop31/
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Publish Date: 2026-10-28 08:20:00
