Heat-related deaths and diseases rising due to climate change, experts warn

Lancet report says average person experienced 50 more days of dangerous temperatures than normal due to climate crisis.

Climate change is raising temperatures to dangerous levels, causing more deaths and the spread of infectious diseases, while worsening drought and food security, a new report by health experts has warned.

In 2023 – the hottest year on record – the average person experienced 50 more days of dangerous temperatures than they would have without climate change, according to the Lancet Countdown, an annual report released on Wednesday based on work by 122 experts, including the World Health Organization (WHO).

The report was released as heatwaves, fires, hurricanes, droughts and floods have continued in full force this year, which is expected to surpass 2023 to become the hottest year on record.

“Current policies and actions, if sustained, put the world on track to 2.7 [degrees Celsius] of heating by 2100,” the report said.

Of 15 indicators that the experts have been tracking over the last eight years, 10 have “reached concerning new records”, the report said, including increasing extreme weather events, elderly deaths from heat, and people going without food as droughts and floods hit crops.

The elderly are the most vulnerable, with the number of heat-related deaths in people over 65 last year reaching a level of 167 percent above the number of such deaths in the 1990s.

“Year on year, the deaths directly associated with climate change are increasing,” said Marina Belen Romanello, executive director of the Lancet Countdown.

“But heat is also affecting not just the mortality and increasing deaths, but also increasing the diseases and the pathologies associated with heat exposure,” she said.

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