People around the world are facing record-breaking health threats because of climate inaction, including continued investment in fossil fuels and lagging funding for action to protect health, finds the latest Lancet Countdown report led by UCL researchers.
The 2024 Report of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change reveals that people in every country face record-breaking threats to health and survival from the rapidly changing climate, with 10 of 15 indicators tracking health threats reaching concerning new levels.
Publishing annually in The Lancet, with strategic and financial support from Wellcome, The Lancet Countdown is hosted by UCL and works with almost 300 leading researchers from around the world to track and understand the evolving links between climate change and people's health.
Executive Director of the Lancet Countdown, Dr Marina Romanello (UCL Institute for Global Health) said: "This year's stocktake of the imminent health threats of climate inaction reveals the most concerning findings yet in our eight years of monitoring.
"Once again, last year broke climate change records - with extreme heat waves, deadly weather events, and devastating wildfires affecting people around the world.
"No individual or economy on the planet is immune from the health threats of climate change. The relentless expansion of fossil fuels and record-breaking greenhouse gas emissions compounds these dangerous health impacts and is threatening to reverse the limited progress made so far and put a healthy future further out of reach."
As a result, experts are calling for trillions of dollars spent on fossil fuels to be redirected towards protecting people's health, lives and livelihoods.
Dr Romanello said: "Despite this threat, we see financial resources continue to be invested in the very things that undermine our health.
"Repurposing the trillions of dollars being invested in, or subsidising, the fossil fuel industry every year would provide the opportunity to deliver a fair, equitable transition to clean energy and energy efficiency, and a healthier future, ultimately benefiting the global economy."
Key findings from the report include:
- In 2023, people were exposed to, on average, an unprecedented 50 more days of health-threatening temperatures than expected without climate change. Extreme drought affected 48% of the global land area - the second highest level recorded - and the higher frequency of heatwaves and droughts was associated with 151 million more people experiencing moderate or severe food insecurity than annually between 1981 and 2010.
- Governments and companies are "fuelling the fire" with persistent investment in fossil fuels, all-time high energy-related greenhouse gas emissions, and years of delays in adaptation that are narrowing the survival chances of people across the globe.
- The financial resources to deliver net zero and secure a healthy future are available. Yet governments and companies are spending trillions of dollars on fossil fuel subsidies and investments that are making climate change worse - money that could be redirected towards clean renewable energy and activities that benefits people's health, livelihood and wellbeing.
Amidst these concerning findings, the report highlights new opportunities to put health at the centre of the world's response to climate change, including at the upcoming 'finance COP' in Azerbaijan. The Lancet Countdown report contributes to the evidence needed to inform the negotiations and deliver truly health-protecting climate change action.
Co-Chair of the Lancet Countdown Professor Anthony Costello (UCL Institute for Global Health) said: "Progress towards an equitable and healthy future requires a global transformation of financial systems, shifting resources away from the fossil-fuel based economy towards a zero-emissions future.
"For successful reform, people's health must be put front and centre of climate change policy to ensure the funding mechanisms protect wellbeing, reduce health inequities and maximise health gains, especially for the countries and communities that need it most."
The report notes that the engagement of individuals, corporations, scientists, and international organisations with climate change and health is growing, raising hopes that a healthy, prosperous future could still be within reach.
Responding to the report publication, UN Secretary-General, António Guterres said: "Record-high emissions are posing record-breaking threats to our health. We must cure the sickness of climate inaction - by slashing emissions, protecting people from climate extremes, and ending our fossil fuel addiction - to create a fairer, safer, and healthier future for all."
