In brief
A new Lancet Countdown report warns that after the Paris Agreement health risks linked to climate change have grown faster than in the preceding decade, with 710,000 heat‑related deaths recorded in 2023 alone. The report highlights that fossil fuels still supply most of the world’s electricity, costing millions of lives every year, and calls on governments to consider climate change a global health emergency. The resulting article outlines the health, economic, and energy data that underpin this urgent appeal.
Experts have called for climate change to be declared a global health emergency, a warning that mounting heat‑related deaths and other climate‑driven risks are accelerating worldwide, according to a new Lancet Countdown report released by Xinhua on Nov. 6, 2026. The study, which involved 146 researchers from 71 institutions—including seven from the University of Sydney—offers a stark picture of how the health effects of warming have expanded quicker in the decade after the Paris Agreement than in the period before.
Heat, the report says, accounted for an average of 540,800 deaths per year between 2016 and 2023, with about 68 percent of those deaths linked to human‑caused climate change. In 2023, the hottest year in the data range, heat was associated with a record 710,000 deaths worldwide, more than 70 percent of which Xinhua attributes to rising temperatures driven by greenhouse gases. These fatalities span all regions, but the most vulnerable populations—those in low‑income countries and the elderly—carry the greatest burden.
The same Lancet Countdown study estimates that the combined burden of heat exposure costs 573 billion potential work hours in 2025 and about 1.07 trillion American dollars in lost productivity. Xinhua reports that these figures highlight the economic toll of climate‑induced health events, projecting further losses as temperatures climb. The study’s authors note that the loss of work hours and income not only reflects individual suffering but also threatens broader economic resilience.
While the report celebrates a record 2.1 trillion dollars invested in clean‑energy projects during 2025, Xinhua stresses that more than 80 percent of global electricity continues to come from fossil fuels. Pollution from these power supplies is estimated to cause 2.73 million deaths annually, adding a further layer of health risk that the study links to particulate matter and smog. The data suggest that even as renewable investment rises, the world’s energy mix remains overwhelmingly dependent on carbon‑intensive sources.
The urgency expressed by the study’s lead authors echoes the stance of major health and environmental organisations. Xinhua cites the University of Sydney’s statement that “climate change has reached a point where failure to act can result in a global health emergency,” while University College London researchers, working in partnership with the World Health Organization, note that declaring a health emergency could mobilise funding and policy mechanisms currently reserved for pandemics.
According to the Lancet Countdown, declaring climate change a global health emergency would prompt governments to accelerate clean‑energy transitions, tighten air‑pollution controls, and enhance public health infrastructures to cope with heat waves. Xinhua reports that such an action would align climate‑action goals with public‑health priorities, fostering cross‑sector cooperation and potentially unlocking new funding streams for adaptation and mitigation projects. The study also suggests that framing climate impacts as a health crisis could galvanise civil‑society pressure and reshape public‑policy agendas.
In sum, Xinhua’s report underscored that climate change is not merely an environmental crisis, but an accelerating global health emergency that demands urgent and coordinated response. By evidencing rising mortality, economic loss, and continued reliance on fossil fuels, the study calls on the international community to elevate climate action to the same emergency‑level urgency as global pandemics, ensuring healthier and more resilient societies for future generations.
