Rise in heat-related deaths linked to climate change

The last two decades have seen a 54% increase in heat-related deaths in older people linked to worsening climate change, a new international report led by UCL researchers has revealed. The 2020 Report of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change, published in The Lancet , shows a record 2.9 billion additional days of heatwave exposure affecting over-65s in 2019 - almost twice the previous high. The authors say no country - whether rich or poor - is immune from the health impacts of worsening climate change and that, unless urgent action is taken, it will increasingly threaten global health, disrupt lives and livelihoods and overwhelm healthcare systems. Researchers from UCL's Institute for Global Health, Energy Institute, Institute for Sustainable Resources, Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering, Department of Geography and Institute for Human Health and Performance all contributed to the report, which brought together experts from more than 35 institutions including the World Health Organisation (WHO) and World Meteorological Organisation. The 120 world-leading health and climate change academics and clinicians involved say the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic offers a key moment to act and that by limiting global temperature increases to well below 2C, and aligning climate and pandemic recovery, the world can deliver near-term and long-term health benefits. They say doing so could also reduce the risk of future pandemics, because the drivers of climate change can also drive zoonotic pandemic risk (the risk of pandemics caused by infectious diseases that jump from non-human animals to humans).