Health Matters | 24 November, 2025

GLOBAL FAILURE TO ADAPT TO climate change is taking a toll on people's lives and is responsible for millions of deaths every year, according to a new report from the Lancet.

“This year’s health stocktake paints a bleak and undeniable picture of the devastating health harms reaching all corners of the world—with record-breaking threats to health from heat, extreme weather events, and wildfire smoke killing millions,” declared the Countdown on Health and Climate Change report, led by University College London and produced in collaboration with the World Health Organization.

Twelve of the report’s 20 indicators for the health risks and impacts of climate change in the report set new records, including extreme precipitation events and food insecurity from climate extremes.

The report found the number of heat-related deaths has surged 63% since the 1990s, averaging 546,000 a year. In 2024, the hottest year on record, the average person was exposed to a record 16 additional health-threatening hot days. Air pollution from wildfire smoke was linked to a record 154,000 deaths last year.

Delays in the adoption of clean energy are also taking a toll on our health. Each year, 2.5 million deaths are attributable to the air pollution that comes from continued burning of fossil fuels. Many of these deaths could be prevented by the transition to clean energy—air pollution resulting from the household use of dirty fuels and technologies across 65 countries resulted in 2.3 million deaths in 2022, according to the report.

Energy-related emissions have reached new highs, the report says, with the world’s largest fossil-fuel giants having increased their projected production to a scale three times greater than a livable planet can support. According to the Paris Agreement, global emissions must peak before this year at the latest and decline 43% by 2030 in order to limit global warming to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels. The report calls on leaders to focus on green solutions that can also improve health outcomes. The need to do so is particularly urgent, it notes, given a “political shift towards reduced foreign aid support from some of the world’s wealthiest countries.”

Despite rollbacks on climate action in the U.S., many governments and communities are taking action—and reaping the health benefits that come along with it. According to the most recent data the study analyzed, an increased shift away from coal, particularly in wealthy countries, prevented an estimated 160,000 premature deaths annually from 2010 to 2022. “Climate change action remains one of the greatest health opportunities of the 21st century,” said Tafadzwa Mabhaudhi, director of the Lancet Countdown Africa Centre, “also driving development, spurring innovation, creating jobs, and reducing energy poverty.”

(Source: TIME)