India faces an unprecedented rise in climate-sensitive diseases, with malaria reaching higher altitudes, including the Himalayas, and dengue transmission expanding nationwide. This unsettling trend, outlined in the Lancet Countdown's latest report on health and climate change, highlights the urgent need for India to adopt improved climate-integrated forecasting, enhance healthcare infrastructure, and foster widespread community awareness. Developed by a group of 122 experts, the report emphasizes that immediate, robust action is essential to combat the escalating health risks posed by climate change.
India’s coastal regions are particularly vulnerable as rising sea levels pose a serious threat to communities living along the shorelines. Effective flood adaptation plans are crucial for these areas, which are at risk of regular inundation and other climate-related threats. With India's dense population and diverse geography, the report urges policymakers to prioritize the nation's climate and health policies, ensuring they are well-funded, resilient, and capable of protecting people from the intensifying consequences of climate change.
The report places 2023 as the hottest year recorded globally, a year marked by severe droughts, relentless heatwaves, widespread forest fires, and powerful storms. The prolonged heat took a toll on public health, significantly increasing fatalities, especially among the elderly. Heat-related deaths surged by 167% compared to the 1990s, and people experienced an average of 1,512 hours of dangerous heat exposure—27.7% more than in previous decades. This extreme heat also had major economic repercussions, with approximately 512 billion labor hours lost worldwide, causing around $835 billion in income losses, particularly affecting low- and middle-income countries.
Rising temperatures have also facilitated the spread of mosquito-borne diseases like dengue, which hit an all-time high of over 5 million cases globally in 2023. The changing climate creates favorable conditions for various infectious diseases, such as malaria, West Nile virus, and vibriosis, to thrive in regions that had previously been free from these illnesses.
Extreme drought conditions, experienced across nearly half of the world’s land areas, peaked this year as well. With 48% of the global land area facing at least one month of extreme drought, these conditions have disrupted food supplies, reduced crop yields, and exacerbated water shortages. Climate-related droughts and heatwaves between 1981 and 2010 were linked to an additional 151 million people experiencing moderate or severe food insecurity across 124 countries by 2022, showing the profound impact on food security worldwide.
Nevertheless, the Lancet report sheds light on some positive strides, especially in the clean energy sector. Deaths from air pollution have declined due to a global reduction in coal burning, and clean energy investments hit a record high of $1.9 trillion in 2023. Renewable energy employment reached historic levels, underscoring the sector’s potential to create job opportunities amid climate adaptation and mitigation efforts. While these developments bring hope, they underscore the urgency for sustained, global commitments to mitigate climate change and reinforce climate resilience to protect communities worldwide from its growing impacts.
Â
