Climate inaction claiming mlns of lives each year: WHO

GENEVA, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- Continued overreliance on fossil fuels and failure to adapt to a heating world are already having a devastating toll on human health, according to a global report released Wednesday by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The 2025 report of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change, produced in collaboration with WHO, finds that 12 of 20 key indicators tracking health threats have reached record levels, showing how climate inaction is costing lives, straining health systems, and undermining economies.

The rate of heat-related mortality has increased 23 percent since the 1990s, pushing total heat-related deaths to an average 546,000 deaths per year, it said.

Simultaneously, extreme weather events pushed an additional 124 million people into food insecurity in 2023. The economic impact was severe, with heat exposure leading to productivity losses equivalent to 1.09 trillion U.S. dollars in 2024, according to the report.

"The climate crisis is a health crisis. Every fraction of a degree of warming costs lives and livelihoods," said Jeremy Farrar, assistant director-general for health promotion and disease prevention and care at WHO. ■