Lancet Countdown: COP29 to help ensure healthy transition to net zero emissions

The Baku Climate Conference COP29 will provide additional opportunities to secure the financial support needed for a healthy transition to zero emissions, reads an annual Lancet Countdown report on climate change and health, Report informs.

The Lancet Countdown project, which tracks progress in health and climate change, was established in the year the Paris Agreement came into force. Its goal is to annually analyze the impact of climate change on human health at global, regional, and national levels.

The 2024 report, prepared by 122 leading researchers from UN institutions and academic institutes worldwide, shows the most alarming results in 8 years of monitoring. The data indicates unprecedented threats to human well-being, health, and survival due to the rapidly changing climate. Of the 15 indicators tracking climate change-related health hazards, 10 have reached new alarming records. Heat-related mortality among people over 65 has increased by a record 167% compared to the 1990s. Heat also increasingly affects physical activity and sleep quality, which in turn impacts physical and mental health.

Extreme weather events, such as floods, droughts, and dust storms, are becoming more frequent and intense, threatening millions of lives. In 2023, heat exposure subjected people engaging in outdoor physical activity to heat stress risk (moderate or higher) for 27.7% more hours than the 1990s average.

Between 1961-90 and 2014-23, 61% of the global land area experienced an increase in days with extreme precipitation, which increases the risk of floods, infectious disease spread, and water contamination. Meanwhile, 48% of the global land area experienced at least one month of extreme drought in 2023. The increase in drought cases and periods of abnormal heat since 1981-2010 led to an additional 151 million people experiencing moderate or severe food insecurity in 124 studied countries in 2022, the highest recorded figure.

Meanwhile, changes in precipitation patterns and rising temperatures contribute to the transmission of deadly infectious diseases such as dengue fever, malaria, West Nile virus-related diseases, and vibriosis. Compounding these impacts, climate change affects the social and economic conditions that health and well-being depend on. Average annual economic losses from extreme weather events increased by 23% from 2010-14 to 2019-23, reaching $227 billion (an amount exceeding the GDP of approximately 60% of world economies).

Despite years of monitoring revealing urgent health threats due to inaction on climate change, health risks are worsening due to years of delays in adaptation. Most countries remain poorly prepared to protect people from growing threats. After decades of delays in addressing climate change, preventing the most serious health consequences now requires coordinated, structural, and sustainable changes in most areas of human activity. Notably, a global transformation of financial systems is required.

At the 28th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) in Dubai in 2023, a health-themed day was held for the first time: 151 countries supported the UAE Declaration on Climate and Health, and the Global Adaptation Goal set a specific health target.

The results of the first Global Stocktake of the Paris Agreement also recognized the right to health and a healthy environment, calling on parties to make further efforts in health adaptation, and opened a new opportunity to prioritize human survival. At the upcoming COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, decisions are expected on how the loss and damage fund will be managed and to approve the New Collective Quantified Goal for climate finance.

This will provide additional opportunities to secure the financial support needed for a healthy transition to net-zero emissions. The health sector's participation in these processes will be crucial to ensure that financing mechanisms optimize the positive health impacts of climate actions and account for economic and non-economic losses and damages.

This engagement and the described outcomes will be key to ensuring that financing can fully support the most affected countries, helping to address and minimize inequalities caused by climate change.