According to international medical experts, the health of the world’s population is at the mercy of dependence on fossil fuels, which is responsible for climate change.
- Exposure to high fire risk days increased by 61%.
- Rapidly shifting to plant-based diets would reduce agricultural emissions by 55% and avert up to 11.5 million diet-related deaths.
Coal, oil, natural gas… The excessive and persistent global dependence on fossil fuels aggravates climate change and has deleterious effects on the health and well-being of human beings. This was alerted by an annual study, called “Lancet Countdown“, which was conducted by 99 experts from 51 institutions, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). According to the report, most countries are still investing hundreds of billions of dollars in fossil fuels, which would be comparable or even higher than their health budgets.
An increase in infectious diseases due to climate change
Rising temperatures and extreme weather events, caused by climate change, are putting almost 100 million more people in a situation of severe food insecurity, compared to the period 1981-2010, said Elizabeth Robinson, director of the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics, which participated in the work.
Climate change also has an impact on the spread of infectious diseases. According to the results, the risk of malaria transmission has increased by almost a third (32.1%) in parts of the Americas and by 14% in Africa over the past decade. For dengue fever, the risk of transmission increased by 12% globally over the period. Another alert: the death rate associated with heat has increased by 68% between 2017 and 2021. According to the WHO, nearly 250,000 additional deaths per year, between 2030 and 2050, could be attributed to global warming.
“Our children will face an acceleration of climate change that would threaten their survival”
“The climate crisis is killing us. It is harming not only the health of our planet, but also that of all its inhabitants (…), while the addiction to fossil fuels spirals out of control”, said Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary General. It calls for investments in renewable energy and climate resilience. “The world is at a turning point. (…) We must change. Otherwise, our children will face an acceleration of climate change that would threaten their survival”, said Anthony Costello, professor and co-chair of the Lancet Countdown.