Continuing overreliance on fossil fuels has been playing havoc with people’s lives, health, and livelihoods across the globe. Nearly two-thirds of the indictors tracking climate-linked health threats have reached unprecedented levels, a just-published global scientific report has found.
The ninth Lancet Countdown annual indicator report, led by University College London and produced in strategic partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO), represents the work of 128 leading experts from 71 academic institutions and UN agencies globally.
The report says failure to curb the warming effects of climate change, mainly caused by burning of fossil fuels, pushed up “the rate of heat-related deaths (by) 23% since the 1990s, to 546,000 a year”. In 2024 alone, air pollution from wildfire smoke was linked to a record 154,000 deaths, while the global average transmission potential of dengue has risen by up to 49 per cent since the 1950s.
The impact of air pollution has been found to be huge, both on public health and the economy. “… 2.5 million deaths every year are attributable to the air pollution that comes from continued burning of fossil fuels. This is also straining national budgets — as fossil fuel prices soared, governments collectively spent 956 billion US dollars on net fossil fuel subsidies in 2023,” said the authors of the report led by Mariana Romanello, an executive director of Lancet Countdown.
The 2025 Report of The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change issues a fresh clarion call for “all hands-on deck” to accelerate and intensify efforts to simultaneously reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and adapt to climate change.
Incidentally, the UNFCCC’s new Synthesis Report on 2035 country climate plans, released on October 28, found that global emissions are beginning to bend downward. However, all submitted and announced national targets, even if fully implemented, would reduce global emissions by around 17 per cent by 2035. This is far less than the world needs to remain within the 1.5 degree C rise compared to the pre-industrial era, as agreed in the 2015 Paris climate summit.
The report reminded that as the fossil fuel linked deaths surge, “… oil and gas giants (also) keep expanding their production plans — to a scale three times greater than a liveable planet can support”.
However, the report also highlighted the impacts of some fossil fuel-linked positive actions. “While some governments backtrack on climate commitments, an estimated 160,000 lives are being saved annually from the shift away from coal and the resultant cleaner air, while renewable energy generation reached record-highs,” said a release linked with the report. The report also revealed the emerging leadership of local governments, communities, organisations and the health sector, and called for “all hands-on deck” to accelerate progress.
“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,” warned Marina Romanello, Executive Director of the Lancet Countdown at University College London. “The destruction to lives and livelihoods will continue to escalate until we end our fossil fuel addiction and dramatically up our game to adapt,” added the official.
“The year 2024 was the hottest on record, with catastrophic consequences for the health, lives, and livelihoods of people across the globe,” said the report. It pointed out that globally, the average person was exposed to a record extra 16 health-threatening hot days as a direct result of climate change. The most vulnerable, those aged under one year and over 65 years, experienced, on average, an all-time high of 20 heatwave days. The statistic is a whopping 389 per cent and 304 per cent increase, respectively, from the 1986-2005 yearly average.
The report also revealed that heat-related mortality per 100,000 increased by 23 per cent since the 1990s, with total heat-related deaths reaching an average of 546,000 annually between 2012 and 2021. In addition, droughts and heatwaves increased the number of people experiencing moderate or severe food insecurity by 123 million in 2023, compared to the annual average between 1981 and 2010.
The report has found that delays in the adoption of clean, climate-friendly energy by over 2 billion people meant that they still use polluting and unreliable fuels in their homes across 65 countries. Consequently, household air pollution resulted in 2.3 million avoidable deaths in 2022.
Delays in taking appropriate actions leading to the continuance of unsustainable food systems had resulted in “11.8 million diet-related deaths in 2022”, which could largely be avoided by transitioning to healthier, climate-friendly food systems.
More broadly, the report highlighted that climate change is increasingly destroying livelihoods, straining the economy, and burdening health budgets. “Heat exposure resulted in a record 639 billion potential hours of lost labour productivity in 2024, with income losses equivalent to a staggering $ 1.09 trillion (almost 1% of global GDP). At the same time, the costs of heat-related deaths in those over age 65 reached an all-time high of $261billion.”
The authors said delays in adaptation are also exacerbating the health harms of climate change. “Scarce financial support for adaptation remains a key barrier, and data in this report shows it is still grossly insufficient to cover the financial needs disclosed by countries,” said Romanello. “A political shift towards reduced foreign aid support from some of the world’s wealthiest countries, further restricts financial support for climate change action, leaving all populations increasingly unprotected,” added an expert hinting towards the Donald Trump-led US government’s actions on climate change.
The report has underlined that in response to soaring fossil fuel prices, and with outdated energy grids overly reliant on them, governments around the world poured $956 billion into net fossil fuel subsidies in 2023 to keep energy locally affordable. This is expected to increase the fiscal pressures and put a cloud on $300 billion a year commitment to support the most climate-vulnerable countries made at COP29.
“Concerningly, 15 out of 87 countries responsible for 93% of global CO2 emissions spent more on net fossil fuel subsidies than their national health budgets in 2023,” the report found. The list includes Algeria, Angola, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Brunei Darussalam, Egypt, Iraq, Islamic Republic of Iran, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan.
1. Those under 1 and those over 65 years old exposed to a record-high number of heatwave days in 2024, 389 per cent and 304 per cent increase, respectively, from the 1986-2005 yearly average.
2. In 2024, each person was exposed, on average, to a record-high 1,609 hours during which ambient heat posed at least a moderate heat stress risk during light outdoor exercise, 35.8 per cent above 1990-1999.
3. A record-high 640 billion potential work hours were lost in 2024, a 98 per cent increase compared to the 1990-99 annual average.
4. Total sleep time lost due to high night-time temperatures increased by 6 per cent in 2020-24 relative to the 1986-2005 baseline, reaching a record 9 per cent increase in 2024.
5. A record-breaking 61 per cent of the global land area was affected by extreme drought in 2024, which is 299 per cent above the 1950s average.
6. The year 2024 saw a record-high 154,000 estimated deaths from wildfire smoke-derived small particulate matter air pollution.
7. In 2015-24, a record 64 per cent of global land area saw increases in extreme precipitation events from 1961-90.
8. The spread of dengue infection from Aedes aegypti rose to a record high in 2024, 16.3 per cent higher than the 1951-60 average.
9. The higher number of heatwave days and drought months in 2023, compared to 1981-2010, was associated with 123.7 million more people experiencing moderate or severe food insecurity.
10. The average annual monetised costs of global heat-related mortality for those over age 65 for 2020-2024 were $261 billion, an increase of 208 per cent from 2000-2004.
11. Labour capacity reduction due to heat exposure led to $1.09 trillion in global potential income losses in 2024, 39 per cent of which occurred in the agricultural sector.
“The 2025 Lancet Countdown report starkly highlights the escalating health toll of climate change, underscoring the urgent need for global and local action. As a representative from South Asia, a region already vulnerable to climate impacts, I am deeply concerned by the record-breaking heatwaves, rising vector-borne diseases, and increasing food insecurity documented in this report,” said Anjal Prakash, a professor with the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad and an IPCC author.
“This Lancet report is a horrifying confirmation of the price India is paying for the world’s addiction to fossil fuels. This is not an abstract policy debate; it is a public health emergency,” observed Harjeet Singh, Climate Activist and Founding Director, Satat Sampada Climate Foundation.