Climate change caused more than 38,000 deaths in Europe in 2023, finds a new report.
The Lancet Countdown’s ninth report on health and the climate breakdown revealed that heat-related deaths, food insecurity and the spread of infectious diseases caused by the climate crisis had a profound negative impact on mental and physical health.
Dr Marina Romanello, executive director of the Lancet Countdown at University College London, said that the climate change crises reached record high levels last year. ‘No individual or economy on the planet is immune [to] 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,’ she said.
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The report found that in 2023, people were exposed to an average 50 more days of health-threatening temperatures than would be expected without climate change. Extreme drought also affected 48% of global land area.
The Lancet Countdown warned that people’s health in the UK was being hit by air pollution, with 29,500 deaths in 2021, and fossil fuels contributing to 44% of those cases. Despite this, the authors said that ‘governments and companies continue to invest in fossil fuels, resulting in all-time high greenhouse gas emissions and staggering tree loss, reducing the survival chances of people all around the globe’.
Responding to the findings António Guterres, the 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 – to create a fairer, safer and healthier future for all.’