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A global report, released on October 30, has found that health threats triggered by climate change have reached record-breaking proportions at the global level with most countries affected and India being one of the most highly impacted ones.
The report, Countdown on Health and Climate Change, was published by The Lancet, one of the world's highest-rated academic journals. It shows “10 of 15 indicators tracking health threats (setting) new records”.
“The climate crisis is a health crisis. As the planet heats up, the frequency and intensity of climate-related disasters increase, leaving no region untouched,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general, World Health Organization; which was a strategic partner in preparing the report.
Antonio Guterres, United Nations Secretary General, 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.”
The report also said: “In 2023, people were exposed to, on average, an unprecedented 50 more days of health-threatening temperatures than expected without climate change”. It points out that last year, extreme drought had affected 48 per cent of the global land area — the second-highest level ever recorded.
The Lancet report underlined that the higher frequency of heatwaves and droughts was associated with 151 million more people experiencing moderate or severe food insecurity now annually compared to the statistics between 1981 and 2010. It referred to experts’ call for trillions of dollars spent on fossil fuels to be redirected towards protecting people’s health, lives and livelihoods.
“While climate action is limited by the lack of funding, fossil fuel investment still attracted 36.6 per cent of global energy investment in 2023, with many governments also increasing explicit fossil fuel subsidies in response to soaring energy prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” stated the report.
It added that in 2022, 72 of the 86 countries (84 per cent) analysed in the report subsidised fossil fuels for a record net total of US$1.4 trillion; dwarfing any financial commitments in support of climate action made at the 28th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Dubai.
The impact of climate change on India was clearly worse, compared to global benchmark. “India has recently experienced record-breaking heatwaves. In 2023, each person was exposed to more than 2,400 hours, the equivalent to 100 days, per year when light outdoor activity like walking posed at least a moderate risk to heat stress,” read the report, a copy of which is with this reporter.
The report stated that in India, infants and elderly have been most affected from recent climatic impacts. “From 2014-2023, each infant and adult over age 65 was exposed to an average 7.7 and 8.4 heatwave days per year, respectively; 47 percent and 58 percent (over) compared to 1990-1999.”
Apart from the physical stress from such heat spike, there have also been formidable economic losses, claimed the report. It stated: “181 billion potential labour hours were lost due to heat exposure in 2023 (and) USD 141 billion was the potential income loss from labour capacity reduction due to heat in 2023.”
The coastal areas of India are no less impacted by the physical battering from sea level rise; “India’s extensive coastline, spanning over 7,500 kilometers, faces severe threats from rising sea levels driven by both natural processes and human activities. Coastal regions, such as the Sundarbans, Mumbai, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha and parts of Gujarat, are especially vulnerable to the impacts of sea level rise”.
In 2023, approximately 18.1 million people in India resided in areas less than one metre above sea level; triggering migration, days report. “Our studies have shown that 7 of 10 families in the Sundarbans migrate and climate change impacts, along with other factors, play a key role in the dynamics,” said Tuhin Ghosh, a Sundarbans researcher and professor at Jadavpur University, Kolkata
“If India aspires to be a developed country soon, it must keep in mind that health impacts due to rising climatic factors will slow down our growth. Hence, India should invest more to become more climate resilient,” observed Sanjay Vashist, director of Climate Action Network South Asia; which focuses on climate change triggered forced migration.
The report also shows that during the decade ending in 2023, climate change has substantially altered the transmission dynamics of climate-sensitive infectious diseases in India with malaria, normally remaining confined to low land areas, has spread to Himalayas; and dengue infection has expanded throughout the country including coastal regions.
“The transmission potential for dengue carried by Aedes albopictas mosquitoes increased 85 percent from 1951-1960 to 2014- 2023,” shows the report that has also underlined that the coastal population has become much more vulnerable to pathogens like vibrio, that causes several gut infections as well as cholera, due to changing climatic condition.