It found the growth of energy from renewable sources had “vastly exceeded expectations”, but that global action on climate change was “grossly insufficient”, and that this had already led to significant harm to human health.<\/p>\n
Almost 3 million climate-related deaths<\/p>\n
It is the first time the authors of the Lancet Countdown study have quantified heat-related deaths directly due to human-caused climate change.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The authors estimate more than half a million deaths per year between 2016 and 2023 were linked to heat and that 68 per cent of those deaths were caused by climate change.<\/p>\n
Developing countries had the highest proportion of heat-related deaths, which the authors found “reflected the disproportionate adverse impacts of climate change on those least responsible for it”.<\/p>\n
Study co-author and Macquarie University climate health expert Professor Paul Beggs said vulnerable people were most at risk from climate change globally, but no-one was immune.<\/p>\n
“Even here in Australia, we know people do die from heatwaves, people do die from bushfire smoke exposure and things like that,” he said.<\/p>\n
“So I think it doesn’t matter where you live; climate change is already having an impact on health, and that’s only going to increase.”<\/p>\n
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Bangladeshi labourers hide from the sun inside pipes at a construction site during summer in Dhaka. (Reuters: Rafiqur Rahman DCS\/DY)<\/p>\n
According to recently released peer-reviewed studies, severe heat killed more than 50,000 people across Europe during this year’s Northern Hemisphere summer<\/a>, which was marred by rolling heatwaves and fires.<\/a><\/p>\n The scientists attributed about two-thirds of these deaths to human-caused climate change.<\/p>\n The Lancet report tracks 54 indicators of how climate change and efforts to tackle it affect health, but warns that wider, system-wide risks could be far greater than the individual measures suggest.<\/p>\n This El Ni\u00f1o is different<\/a><\/p>\n The dark, red tongue spreading in the Pacific is growing at an unprecedented rate.<\/p>\n “A severe El Ni\u00f1o threatens to compound the impacts of climate change and trigger unprecedented climate-related humanitarian crises globally,” the report states.<\/p>\n “Climate change has become a global health emergency. Addressing it requires urgent course correction.”<\/p>\n More heatwaves, droughts A drought-stricken sunflower field during record heatwaves this year in Hungary. (Reuters)<\/p>\n The study authors noted that the past 11 years had been the hottest on record, accompanied by more frequent heatwaves and droughts.<\/p>\n Climate change has increased the risk and intensity of droughts, which affected more than 50 per cent of global land in 2025 for at least a month.<\/p>\n At the same time, extreme rainfall has also increased, resulting in a higher flood and landslide risk. The report found the world’s exposure to very high or extremely high risk of wildfire had also increased.<\/p>\n Climate change was also affecting productivity, according to the researchers.<\/p>\n “Globally, heat exposure caused the loss of 573 billion potential work hours in 2025, resulting in US $1.07 trillion in income losses,” the report found, with low-and middle-income countries most affected.<\/p>\n Western Sydney physician Aditya Vyas co-authored a separate Lancet climate health report due to be released on Oceania.<\/p>\n![\"Dead](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/2b5b18c4be217723cd0752f015c5d299.jpeg\")
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