The ninth edition of The Lancet Countdown report offers a grim update on how climate change is affecting global health. Extreme heat, prolonged droughts, and intense rainfall are increasingly impacting people’s well-being worldwide, leading to heat-related deaths, disease outbreaks, and worsening air pollution. While fossil fuel pollution deaths have slightly decreased, the report calls for urgent, systemic changes to protect health and mitigate further climate risks as we approach COP29.
