Lancet Report Calls for Global Health Emergency Declaration Over Climate Change

Climate change should be declared a “global health emergency” to encourage governments to strengthen policies protecting public health, according to a report published by The Lancet on Wednesday. The report estimates that heat caused around three million deaths worldwide between 2016 and 2023.

Released ahead of the COP31 climate summit in November, the 10th edition of the report brought together 146 researchers from 30 countries to examine the effects of climate change on global health.

The report recorded approximately 710,000 heat-related deaths in 2023, with more than 70 percent linked to human-induced climate change.

Marina Romanello, executive director of the Lancet Countdown research initiative on health and climate change, said roughly three million heat-related deaths had occurred globally during the eight years following the 2015 Paris Agreement. She compared the death toll to the entire population of Wales being lost over eight years, adding that 68 percent of the deaths were directly attributable to climate change.

Adopted in Paris, the legally binding climate treaty aims to keep global warming well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels while pursuing efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C.

Growing Health and Economic Impacts

Romanello called for an integrated global response to climate-related health threats, arguing that governments should focus on long-term preparedness rather than responding to successive emergencies.

Researchers assessed climate-related deaths by comparing recorded heat fatalities with estimates of how many would have occurred without human-induced warming, explained Professor Ollie Jay of the University of Sydney.

Climate change has increased the frequency and intensity of extreme heat events. The report also noted that an extreme drought affected more than half of the world’s land surface for at least one month last year.

The economic consequences are also substantial. Researchers estimated that heat-related reductions in worker productivity cost the global economy more than $1 trillion annually over the past three years.

Southeast Asia and Africa experienced particularly significant losses, equivalent to 3.9 percent and 3.2 percent of their gross domestic product, respectively. The corresponding losses were estimated at 0.2 percent in Europe and 1.5 percent in the Americas.

Progress in Clean Energy and Health Preparedness

Despite the growing risks, the report highlighted improvements in climate preparedness and investment in clean energy.

Since 2016, 56 of the World Health Organization’s 194 member states have adapted their health and early-warning systems to better anticipate extreme events.

Global investment in clean energy reached $2.1 trillion in 2025, twice the amount invested in fossil fuels. Nevertheless, fossil fuels continue to account for approximately 80 percent of global energy consumption and contribute to air pollution associated with 2.73 million deaths annually.

The report also estimated that around 323,000 deaths had been avoided in at least 77 countries where air pollution from fossil fuels had declined since 2016.

Funding for climate-related medical research increased sevenfold to $316 million in 2024. However, 84 percent of this funding went to researchers in wealthy countries, despite the disproportionate burden of climate-related health threats faced by the least developed nations.

Data Gaps and Political Challenges

Romanello said researchers faced additional difficulties this year because certain data sources had become unavailable, particularly in the United States. These included information on fossil fuel subsidies that US authorities had not made public.

She also warned that geopolitical instability over the past two years had pushed climate change and its health consequences down the global agenda.

The report concluded that delays in climate action were intensifying health risks, reinforcing calls for coordinated international policies that combine emissions reductions, stronger healthcare systems and long-term preparedness for extreme weather events.