Climate change poses a severe threat to human existence and urgent global action is imperative to mitigate risks and safeguard human well-being. Emphasising the same, an international team of experts ]have warned that without action on climate change, the "health of humanity is at grave risk". In the coming decades nearly five times more people will likely die owing to the extreme heat, the experts said.
According to The Lancet's Countdown report released on Wednesday, serious health risks are linked to the ongoing rise in fossil fuel usage. It's not just about deadly heat; drought could lead to starvation, and mosquitoes, extending their reach like never before, carry the threat of spreading infectious diseases across wider areas, the researchers warned. This puts more pressure on already strained health systems.
The report also highlights how climate inaction is costing lives and livelihoods today. In 2022, individuals were, on average, exposed to 86 days of health-threatening high temperatures, of which 60 per cent were at least twice as likely to occur because of human-caused climate change.
- Alarming new projections reveal soaring health risks of persistent global inaction over the climate emergency.
- The health threats experienced to date are an early symptom of the dangers our future might hold.
- Despite continued warnings of the risks, and regardless of agreed targets to limit temperature rise, the world is accelerating in the wrong direction.
- However, for all the negatives, there are still positive signals of progress, and opportunities to deliver a healthy, thriving future for people all around the world.
- Building upon the progress already made, the Commission makes recommendations to maximise the benefits of climate change action for people’s health and wellbeing.
For the unversed, the Lancet Countdown is an international research collaboration that independently monitors the evolving impacts of climate change on health, and the emerging health opportunities of climate action.
Climate Change Conference in Dubai
This comes ahead of the 28th UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai, where countries are expected to push for stronger climate action to limit warming to 1.5 degrees. For the unversed, starting November 30, Dubai will be hosting the COP28, the annual climate change negotiations called the Conference of Parties (COP) under the aegis of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
