The continued over-reliance on fossil fuels, coupled with delayed action on climate change, is costing millions of lives each year, the 2025 Report of The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change has found.
The report states that the failure to address climate change sufficiently has led to a 23% increase in heat-related deaths since the 1990s, while in 2024 alone, air pollution from wildfire smoke was associated with 154,000 deaths – the highest level ever recorded.
Air pollution from fossil fuels continues to cause around 2.5 million deaths each year, the report states, with governments doing little to abate its effects – in fact, governments spent an estimated $956 billion on fossil fuel subsidies in 2023.
Some fifteen countries, which together account for more than 90% of global carbon dioxide emissions, spent more on fossil fuel subsidies than on their national health budgets, according to the report.
‘Bleak and undeniable’
“This year’s health stocktake paints a bleak and undeniable picture of the devastating health harms reaching all corners of the world – with record-breaking threats to health from heat, extreme weather events, and wildfire smoke killing millions,” commented Dr Marina Romanello, executive director of the Lancet Countdown at University College London.
“The destruction to lives and livelihoods will continue to escalate until we end our fossil fuel addiction and dramatically up our game to adapt.”
The report also notes that 2024 was the hottest on record, with the average person exposed to sixteen additional hot days on average as a result of climate change. Infants and the elderly – the most impacted groups – now experience more than three times as many heatwave days compared to late-20th-century averages.
At the same time, some progress has been recorded, with the continuing transition away from fossil fuels and towards cleaner energy sources preventing approximately 160,000 premature deaths annually between 2010 and 2022.
‘Progress is possible’
“We already have the solutions at hand to avoid a climate catastrophe – and communities and local governments around the world are proving that progress is possible,” Dr Romanello added.
“From clean energy growth to city adaptation, action is underway and delivering real health benefits – but we must keep up the momentum. Rapidly phasing out fossil fuels remains the most powerful lever to slow climate change and protect lives. At the same time, shifting to healthier, climate-friendly diets and more sustainable agricultural systems would massively cut pollution, greenhouse gases and deforestation, potentially saving over ten million lives a year.”
The report involves 128 experts from 71 institutions, and was led by University College London in collaboration with the World Health Organization. Read more here.
