Climate crisis now a health emergency of ‘pandemic scale’, UN warns

🔦 Navigate COP31 unmissable events with our Insider's Guide

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🗞️ Driving the news: The UN climate chief has warned that climate change has become a global health emergency of “pandemic proportions”, urging governments to make public health central to climate policy
• Speaking at COP31 in Antalya, Simon Stiell highlighted how extreme heat, air pollution and climate disasters are placing growing pressure on health systems and infrastructure

🔭 The context: The Lancet Countdown 2026 estimates that fossil fuel pollution and human-driven climate change contribute to 3.3 million deaths annually through outdoor air pollution and extreme heat
• Meanwhile, the World Meteorological Organization reports that the past 12 years have been the warmest on record, with the last four ranking as the four hottest
• Climate impacts extend beyond heat-related illness to wildfire smoke, food insecurity, injuries and changing risks of diseases such as cholera, malaria and dengue
• Flooding and power disruptions can also undermine healthcare services and water sanitation

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: Climate change is increasingly a direct public health challenge, with vulnerable communities and already strained health systems facing overlapping risks
• Protecting health therefore requires both climate adaptation and rapid reductions in fossil fuel emissions

⏭️ What’s next: Stiell is calling for health ministries to participate in climate adaptation planning and for every national adaptation plan to address healthcare continuity during heatwaves and floods, safe water access and early outbreak detection
• Governments are also being urged to integrate health into climate finance, policy design and progress assessments

💬 One quote: “Climate risk finds every vulnerability in a health system and widens it.” — Simon Stiell, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary

📈 One stat: 3.3 million — the estimated number of annual deaths linked to fossil fuel pollution and human-caused climate change through outdoor air pollution and extreme heat, according to the Lancet Countdown 2026.

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