The report, released early Wednesday, noted that globally such heat-related deaths had increased 68% during 2017-21, reaching 3,10,000 deaths annually. It said the death toll was significantly exacerbated by the confluence of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The report also underlined how the governments’ support to fossil fuel consumption through subsidies in many countries is creating problems globally and has led to deterioration of air quality, decline in food output and increasing risk of infectious disease linked to higher carbon emission.
The report flagged that over 3,30,000 people died in India in 2020 due to exposure to fossil fuel pollutants.
“The climate crisis is killing us. It is undermining not just the health of our planet, but the health of people everywhere — through toxic air pollution, diminishing food security, higher risks of infectious disease outbreaks, record extreme heat, drought, floods and more,” said UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres while reacting on the findings of the report.
As the countries are gearing up for the 27th session of the UN climate conference (COP27) in Egypt early next month, Guterres has appealed to them to come up with climate solutions that match the scale of the problem.
The report noted that 80% of reviewed countries have provided some sort of fossil fuel subsidies in 2021, amounting to $400 billion. India allocated a net $34 billion on subsidising fossil fuels in 2019, equivalent to 37.5% of the country’s national health spending that year.
The report also analysed the impacts of rising temperature and extreme heat on infants under one year and noted that such vulnerable groups in India experienced an average of 72 million more person-days of heatwaves per year during 2012-21, compared to 1985-2005. For the same period, adults over 65 years of age in India experienced 301 million more person-days.
