The World Health Organization (WHO) and global partners are calling for the protection of people’s health to be recognized as the most powerful driver of climate action
The 2025 report of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change, warns that continued overreliance on fossil fuels and failure to adapt to a heating world are already having a devastating toll on human health.
Produced in collaboration with WHO, the 2025 report finds that 12 of 20 key indicators tracking health threats have reached record levels, showing how climate inaction is costing lives, straining health systems, and undermining economies.
“The climate crisis is a health crisis. Every fraction of a degree of warming costs lives and livelihoods,” said Dr Jeremy Farrar, Assistant Director-General for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and Care at the WHO.
Climate inaction is killing people now in all countries. On the other hand, climate action is also the greatest health opportunity of our time. Cleaner air, healthier diets, and resilient health systems can save millions of lives now and protect current and future generations.
According to the 2025 Lancet Countdown report, the rate of heat-related mortality has increased 23% since the 1990s, pushing total heat-related deaths to an average 546 000 deaths per year. The average person was exposed to 16 days of dangerous heat in 2024 that would not have been expected without climate change, with infants and older adults facing a total of over 20 heatwave days per person, a fourfold increase over the last twenty years.
The report also found that droughts and heatwaves were associated with an additional 124 million people facing moderate or severe food insecurity in 2023, adding that heat exposure caused 640 billion potential labour hours to be lost in 2024, with productivity losses equivalent to US$ 1.09 trillion. The costs of heat-related deaths among older adults reached US$ 261 billion.
One World Health Uganda’s Dr. Brian Musinguzi says Uganda cannot escape the impacts of climate change on health, arguing that the country faces intensifying climate-related crises like droughts, floods which have escalated the disease burden.
“All these demand action from the government and other people who sit on the decision-making tables. There is a lot of work to do, especially by the government in implementing National Adaptation Plans and availing emergency medical services to the affected populations,” he says
In 2024, Uganda made history as the first African nation to launch a National Health Adaptation Plan (H-NAP), fulfilling the country’s global commitments at the UN Conference of Parties (COP) 26 and 28 summits in Glasgow (2021), and Dubai (2023), respectively, in response to the growing global climate change risks and challenges.
Launched by the health ministry in Kampala, H-NAP aimed to reinforce the country’s healthcare system against the current mounting health challenges driven by climate variations, to safeguard public well-being amid the rising temperatures, erratic weather patterns, and associated health risks.
Appreciating the steps taken, Dornam Ahumuza, a health worker with Bushenyi District local government says there is need for Uganda to ensure that Climate and health plans are implemented at local government levels.
“Local leaders should include climate-related health risk in their district and sub-county development plans, budgets and emergency preparedness strategies,” he stated
While some governments have slowed their climate commitments, theLancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change shows that cities, communities and the health sector are leading the way. Nearly all reporting cities (834 of 858) have completed or plan to complete climate risk assessments.
National Geographic defines Climate change is a long-term shift in global or regional climate patterns. Often climate change refers specifically to the rise in global temperatures from the mid-20th century to present.