Two million lives could be saved annually through urgent climate action, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared on Thursday in a stark message to negotiators ahead of next week’s climate summit in Baku, warning that rising temperatures are wreaking havoc on global health, disrupting healthcare systems and fueling disease outbreaks worldwide.

The new WHO report, compiled by over 100 organizations and 300 experts, sets out a blueprint of five key climate interventions: implementing heat-health warning systems, electrifying primary healthcare facilities with solar power, improving water and sanitation infrastructure, transitioning to clean household energy, and reforming fossil fuel pricing.

The analysis shows that implementing heat-health warning systems in 57 countries could save 98,500 lives each year, while electrifying primary healthcare facilities with solar power across 63 nations could prevent 290,500 deaths annually by 2024. 

Improving water and sanitation infrastructure could save 173,000 lives, transitioning to clean household energy could prevent 133,000 deaths, and reforming fossil fuel pricing policies could avert over 1.2 million deaths annually by 2034.

“That’s comparable to anything else we can do [globally] in public health through a limited number of climate actions,” Dr Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum, WHO’s climate and health lead, said at the launch press conference. 

“This is something we have to do to protect people’s lives and their future – it brings very large health gains, we know it saves us money, and we know it’s a really good investment.”

Blueprint for action

The findings come at a crucial moment as nations prepare the third generation of climate pledges under the Paris Agreement, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs), due before next year’s COP30 in Brazil. 

WHO is pressing governments to include detailed health planning and financing in these national commitments, urging negotiators to abandon their “siloed approach” to climate change and health, which WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called “a moral and legal imperative.” 

While health is identified as a priority in 91% of national climate plans, few outline specific actions or financing mechanisms to protect health from climate risks.

The stakes are high: climate change is expected to cause 250,000 additional annual deaths between 2030 and 2050, while air pollution already costs $ 8.1 trillion annually (6.1% of global GDP). Despite these massive costs, health remains critically underfunded in climate action, with only 6% of climate adaptation funding and a mere 0.5% of multilateral climate funding going to health projects. 

Evidence suggests every $1 invested in climate adaptation can return up to $15 in benefits, while WHO estimates the return on its five key policies to prevent deaths from climate change would see a return of four to one. 

Yet securing funding remains a critical challenge. In the European Union, a leaked blueprint suggests its dedicated health budget may soon be merged with other funds or eliminated entirely, reflecting intense competition for resources amid inflation, wars, and wider climate impacts in even the world’s wealthiest nations.

One possible source of funding is fossil fuel subsidies, which WHO describes as “incoherent” with health goals, echoing last week’s Lancet report warning governments to stop “fuelling” the fire caused by oil, gas and coal by subsidising their use. According to the IMF, total subsidies amount to around $7 trillion annually – much of it reflected in health costs.

“The largest single component of [subsidies] is effectively health damages,” Campbell-Lendrum explained. “The costs are felt not in the atmosphere but in people’s lungs, triggering heart attacks, impairing children’s development, and giving them asthma.”

“If we were to invest those resources more wisely, then we would have both a healthier planet and much healthier local populations,” Campbell-Lendrum added. “We would also save those resources, and save all that money.”

Can’t claim they didn’t know 

The WHO report comes as new data confirms 2024 will be the first year global temperatures breach the 1.5C threshold above pre-industrial levels – a critical target of the Paris Agreement. UN agencies estimate the world is on track for “catastrophic” warming of 3.1C by the end of the century.

The crisis deepened further with Donald Trump’s White House victory on Tuesday, as his promised expansion of record-high US fossil fuel production could add more than 4 billion tonnes to US emissions by 2030, effectively ending hopes of meeting the 1.5C target.

Reminder: Victory for Trump is likely to all but end global hopes of staying below 1.5C, our analysis found in March https://t.co/D8YonQ4w65 pic.twitter.com/T2Rbkl0T2m

— Simon Evans (@DrSimEvans) November 6, 2024

Despite these setbacks and the recent breakdown of the COP16 biodiversity summit casting a shadow over expectations in Baku, WHO remains optimistic that health impacts could drive meaningful progress at COP29.

“Health is the argument we need to catalyze urgent and large-scale action in this critical moment,” said Dr Maria Neira, WHO’s health and climate lead. “We’re putting forward this very strong health argument to ensure no one can leave COP29 claiming they didn’t know climate change is affecting health.”

Climate health crisis 

The health impacts of the climate crisis are far-reaching and already being felt. The report documents how rising temperatures are increasing the spread of infectious diseases, worsening air pollution, threatening food security, and creating unprecedented challenges for healthcare systems worldwide. In 2023 alone, people faced an average of 50 more days of health-threatening heat compared to previous years.

Disease outbreaks are also intensifying, with dengue cases reaching record highs of over five million cases across 80 countries due to extreme rainfall and heat creating ideal conditions for mosquito-borne diseases. Over half of all pathogens worldwide are aggravated by climate change.

Meanwhile, extreme drought affected almost half the world’s land mass, pushing 151 million more people into food insecurity across 124 countries. 

The WHO’s findings build on data on the escalating climate-driven health crisis published by the Lancet last week. It found heat-related deaths among people over 65 have surged 167% compared to the 1990s, while people worldwide faced an unprecedented 50 more days of health-threatening temperatures last year and extreme heat made even light outdoor exercise dangerous for billions of people.

The burden falls disproportionately on those least responsible for emissions. The WHO notes that by 2050, climate change may push up to 16 million more women and girls into poverty than men and boys, while 920 million children are currently highly exposed to water scarcity. In vulnerable regions, the death rate from extreme weather events in the last decade was 15 times higher than in less vulnerable ones. 

“Whether it is the drought in southern Africa leading to malnutrition, the extreme heat which has become the norm each summer, or the recent flooding in Valencia … health is the lived experience of climate change,” said Dr Vanessa Kerry, WHO’s Special Envoy for Climate Change and Health. “We can no longer afford to ignore that fact.” 

A duty to safeguard health 

The healthcare sector itself faces a double challenge: responding to increasing climate-related health emergencies while also addressing its own significant carbon footprint. The report reveals that the global healthcare sector accounts for approximately 5% of greenhouse gas emissions – equivalent to the emissions of the fifth-largest country in the world.

“For the health community, this is incoherent and directly at odds with our duty to safeguard health,” the report states, calling for an urgent transformation of healthcare systems to become both climate-resilient and low-carbon.

On Thursday, the UAE – hosts of last year’s COP28 summit in Dubai – became the first country to submit its third-generation climate plan under the Paris Agreement, including commitments to achieve a net-zero healthcare system by 2050. However, critics note the plan fails to address the UAE’s planned 34% fossil fuel expansion by 2035, highlighting the tensions between climate action and economic interests.

Cities & shortage

Other areas highlighted by the report include cities, which are identified as crucial battlegrounds for addressing the crisis, being responsible for over 70% of global emissions while also hosting more than half the world’s population. The report calls for urgent action to transform urban areas through clean energy adoption, sustainable transport systems, and improved infrastructure.

“We must reshape our cities to prioritise public transportation and human-powered vehicles, not just to reduce emissions but for the health benefits of daily exercise,” Dr Tedros said. “Green spaces can improve air quality, provide space for physical activity, enhance mental health, and help to cool urban areas.”

The WHO also highlights a critical shortage in the health workforce, projecting a shortfall of 10 million workers by 2030, with six million of these in sub-Saharan Africa – one of the regions most vulnerable to climate impacts.

With COP29 just days away, WHO officials closed with a call to action. 

“The stark reality is that climate change is magnifying existing global health challenges that we’ve yet to fix,” Kerry said. “Poor health doesn’t just affect our well-being, but epidemics, chronic diseases, maternal deaths, air pollution, and fuels insecurity across communities and countries, destabilises economies, widens inequities and drives political unrest.” 

“We must address health as a fundamental part of our climate response to prevent these cascading effects,” she added. “Success cannot be measured only in degrees degrees Celsius averted, but in the human cost of this crisis in lives saved.”

Image Credits: UN-Water/Twitter , Galen Crout , UNDP.