Our dependence on fossil fuels and the failure to adapt to ongoing climate change leads to death and illness for millions of people. These are the conclusions in the latest "Lancet countdown on health and climate change".
The report notes, among other things, that deaths related to heatwaves have increased by 23 percent since 1990. Alone in 2024, an estimated 154,000 people are believed to have died as a result of air pollution from forest fires. 2.5 million deaths are linked to air pollution that occurs when fossil fuels are used.
Rising prices
Governments around the world have also spent almost 960 billion dollars on subsidies for fossil fuels since prices have risen. Money that thus exacerbates the climate crisis and increases the costs for it.
"The harsh reality is that one of the greatest threats to human well-being comes from leaders and companies that back away from their climate commitments, postpone measures and invest even more in fossil fuel production – at the same time as every unit of greenhouse gases emitted increases the costs and difficulties of adaptation", comments Nadia Ameli, researcher who participated in the work with the report in a press release.
Cleaner air
At the same time, 160,000 lives are saved by, for example, coal being phased out, which leads to cleaner air. But overall, the researchers behind the report agree that the devastating consequences of using fossil fuels reach all parts of the world through increased temperatures, emissions and extreme weather events.
The report has been produced in collaboration between University College London and the World Health Organization (WHO). In the work, 128 experts from 71 academies and the UN have participated. It is published just before the UN's climate conference COP30 in Belém, Brazil.
