PARIS: An international team of experts on Wednesday warned that about five times more people will likely to die because of the extreme heat in the coming decades. They stressed for a prompt action on climate change otherwise the health of humanity would be at grave risk.
According to the Lancet Countdown, a major annual assessment conducted by leading researchers and institutions the strong heat has been increasing that threatens human health. The researchers warned that increase in common droughts will put millions at risk of starving, while mosquitoes could spread infectious diseases with them. The assessment comes before the COP28 climate summits in Dubai later this month.
Energy-related carbon emissions hit new heights last year
The Lancet Countdown report said that despite calls for worldwide action, energy-related carbon emissions hit new heights last year. It said that last year people around the world were exposed to an average of 86 days of life-threatening temperatures.
Lancet Countdown’s executive director Marina Romanello told media that the impacts of the climate change seen today could be just an early symptom of a very dangerous future.
According to the study the world warms by two degrees Celsius by the end of the century and annual heat-related deaths is projected to increase 370 percent by 2050.
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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres while reacting on the report said the humanity is staring down the barrel of an unbearable future.
In a statement, he said that the world is already seeing a human catastrophe unfolding with the health and livelihoods of billions across the world threatened by record-breaking heat, rising levels of hunger, crop-failing droughts, growing infectious disease and deadly storms and floods.
