The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change published its 2024 report, Facing Record-Breaking Threats From Delayed Action (November 2024). The 2024 Lancet Countdown report draws on the expertise of 122 researchers from UN agencies and academic institutions worldwide and feeds into the initiative’s work to monitor the health impacts and opportunities arising from global climate action.
Human Level’s Take:
- The latest Lancet Countdown report reveals alarming trends, with 10 out of 15 indicators of climate-related health impacts hitting record levels. This includes heat-related mortality, extreme temperatures affecting physical activity, sleep, and mental health, and increased risks from extreme weather like flooding, drought, and infectious diseases.
- The economic toll is staggering: weather-related losses have risen by 23%, reaching $227 billion annually, while extreme heat and weather caused a record 512 billion labor hours lost in 2023, amounting to $835 billion in income losses.
- And here's the kicker: Health systems themselves are part of the problem, with a 36% increase in emissions from the healthcare sector since 2016. Meanwhile, these systems are increasingly vulnerable to the very climate impacts they are meant to mitigate.
- The report urges the international community, governments and policymakers to put health at the centre of the fight against climate change.
- Although not explicitly called out in the report, we see an important role for companies as well—after all, impacts to health will affect every business that employs workers and strain the healthcare systems that we need for a functioning economy.
- Key areas of action could include preventing or mitigating the health impacts of climate change on workers in your operations and across the value chain; understanding how climate-related health risks could exacerbate your existing impacts on people or create new ones; and finding ways to build leverage with governments to ensure that they take health systems seriously. Workers will need it.
Some key takeaways:
- Our precarious position on health and climate change: The Lancet Countdown reports that, out of 15 indicators monitoring climate change-related health hazards, exposures, and impacts, ten of these have reached new records. For example, heat-related mortality among people over 65 has surged by 167% since the 1990s, and heat exposure is affecting physical activity, sleep, and mental health. Extreme weather events are increasing the risks of flooding, disease spread, and water contamination, while 48% of global land was affected by extreme drought in 2023, contributing to food insecurity for 151 million more people. Hotter, drier conditions are also fueling more sand and dust storms, exposing people to harmful particulate matter. Climate change is also spreading infectious diseases like dengue, malaria, and West Nile virus to new areas. Economic losses from weather events have risen by 23%, now totalling US$ 227 billion annually, while extreme weather and heat caused a record 512 billion labor hours to be lost in 2023, resulting in US$ 835 billion in income losses, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. And health systems are increasingly part of the problem: greenhouse gas emissions from health care have increased by 36% since 2016. Meanwhile, our health care systems are not resilient to the threats and challenges posed by climate change.
- Seven near-term opportunities to act: The report outlines seven key priorities for a healthier future, alongside the 11 from 2023, with implications for both policymakers and businesses: (1) Integrate health into States’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to ensure climate actions prioritise health benefits and address climate-related health costs. (2) Invest in a healthy future by redirecting funds from fossil fuel subsidies to renewable energy, clean energy access, and support for vulnerable communities. (3) Focus climate finance on health, ensuring funds address both the health benefits of climate action and the losses and damages from climate-related health impacts. (4) Make health a primary measure of climate action at the government level. (5) Promote health, equity, and climate justice, including through just transition initiatives. (6) Build resilient health systems that can withstand climate impacts and reduce healthcare sector emissions. (7) Use public health interventions to tackle climate change, such as reducing air pollution and promoting healthier, low-carbon diets.
- A health-centred response to climate change: The report identifies three areas to support a response to climate change that integrates health considerations. First, governments and health educators can build capacity on health and climate change by integrating climate and health education into core curricula within health education programs. This would help equip future health professionals to address the challenges of climate change. Second, all actors in the health care system — including governments, public and private health care providers, and pharmaceutical and biotech companies — should engage engage with and elevate the leadership of Indigenous peoples, frontline communities and marginalised groups in the design and implementation of climate and health policies. These communities, often the most affected by climate actions, play a crucial role in ensuring the effectiveness and fairness of these policies. Third, policymakers should integrate health into all climate change policies at international, national, and local levels through cross-sectoral cooperation. This is essential to ensure that climate actions not only address environmental goals but also protect and promote public health.
