Climate Health Harms Outpace Action, Prompting Calls for Global Health Emergency
Researchers said climate-linked heat deaths rose 36% after the Paris Agreement as they urged governments to put health at the center of climate policy.
- Led by University College London and the World Health Organization , more than 140 experts released a report calling for climate change to be formally recognized as a global health emergency, citing health impacts outpacing nations' responses.
- In 2023, heat was linked to a record 710,000 deaths, with more than 70% attributable to human-caused climate change; annual average heat-related deaths rose by nearly 36% globally after the Paris Agreement was introduced.
- Using satellite analysis, researchers found 80% of the world's land faced shifting groundwater storage patterns, while extreme drought affected nearly 52% of land in 2025. The 100 largest oil and gas companies are on track to exceed 1.5C-compatible production by 150%.
- Professor Marina Romanello of the Lancet Countdown stated, "This isn't a gradual worsening; it's a step change that must be recognised as the global health emergency it is." Clean energy investment reached a record in 2025, though progress remains insufficient.
- Ahead of the UN climate summit Cop31 next month, the report tracks 54 indicators detailing how health interacts with heat, air quality, and economic losses. Experts urge placing health at the centre of every climate decision.
12 Articles
12 Articles
SPECIALISTS are calling for climate change to be declared a global health crisis.
In the 10th edition of Lancet Countdown, published on Wednesday, around 150 researchers from 30 different countries call for the declaration of climate change as a global health emergency. According to scientists, its adverse health effects exceed the global response to these same effects. - Climate change must be declared a global health emergency, according to a reference report (Environment).
Health damage has accelerated over the past decade, according to the Lancet Countdown report, prepared by nearly 150 experts from 30 countries with WHO endorsement
Climate health harms outpace action, prompting calls for global health emergency
The 2026 Report of The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change finds that many of the health risks and harms of climate change grew faster in the decade since the Paris Agreement was introduced (2016–2025) than in the decade before it (2006–2015).
Climate change must be declared a global health emergency, as its impacts on climate change advance faster than actions to combat them, defend experts in a report released today. The report of the "Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change" indicates that some of the health damage caused by climate change intensified more rapidly in the decade following the entry into force of the Paris Agreement (2016-2025) than in the previous decade.
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