The Lancet Report Warns Climate Change Is Escalating into a Global Health Emergency

The Lancet Report Warns Climate Change Is Escalating into a Global Health Emergency
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A new report by the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change warns that the health impacts of climate change are accelerating, with rising temperatures, severe droughts and other environmental threats contributing to growing illness, deaths and economic losses worldwide.

The 2026 report, led by University College London in collaboration with the World Health Organization, found that heat was linked to an estimated 710,000 deaths globally in 2023, with more than 70% attributed to human-caused climate change. It also reported that extreme drought affected more than half of the world’s land for at least one month in 2025, while heat-related productivity losses cost the global economy more than $1 trillion in potential income that year.

The researchers called for climate change to be formally recognized as a global health emergency and urged governments and international institutions to accelerate climate action, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and place public health at the center of climate policies.