Lancet Report: Climate Change Has Become a Global Health Emergency
The 2026 Lancet Countdown report highlights that the negative impacts of the climate crisis on health are growing faster than global responses.
The 2026 Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change report, led by University College London and the World Health Organization, has been published. Created with contributions from over 100 institutions across more than 30 countries, the study emphasized that health risks tied to the climate crisis are rapidly increasing and issued a call to authorities.
According to the report, between 2016 and 2023, temperatures were linked to an average of more than 540,000 deaths per year, with 68 percent of these deaths attributed to climate change. In 2023 alone, extreme heat led to the deaths of 710,000 people, surpassing deaths caused by malaria and HIV.
The productivity decline caused by extreme heat resulted in a loss of over one trillion dollars in global economic revenue in 2025. While clean energy investments reached a record 2.1 trillion dollars in 2025, fossil fuels continue to account for more than 80 percent of the global energy supply, laying the groundwork for 2.7 million air pollution-related deaths each year.