Climate resilience and human health

Findings in a report by Lancet underline the urgency of redirecting finance away from health-harming fossil fuels towards strengthening local health systems, adapting to climate change, and pursuing efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through interventions that simultaneously deliver health co-benefits.

However, as an Adelphi study points out, while 87% of National Adaptation Plans include health priorities, multilateral climate funds have only covered less than 0.1% of the $2.54 billion aggregated need for health adaptation identified in these plans. The funding crisis casts a long shadow over vulnerable nations, including those in South Asia like India. As a country grappling with extreme heatwaves, erratic monsoons, and the resulting strain on public health services - from vector-borne diseases to heatstroke – India’s existing efforts, such as the National Adaptation Fund and state-level action plans, are insufficient to meet the escalating challenge.

An article published in Nature titled ‘Strengthening India’s climate-health resilience: a public health imperative’ states that building a resilient, climate-smart nation requires urgent, localized adaptation in key sectors like water, agriculture, health, and coastal management. Strengthening forecasting systems, ecosystem protection, and green job creation is vital. With timely, integrated action, India can transform climate vulnerability into leadership, securing a sustainable, inclusive future for all. Climate resilience must be mainstreamed into public health policies. India’s adaptation strategy must align with its vision of achieving net-zero emissions by 2070. There is a need to understand that through climate adaptation, we can reinforce our commitment to sustainable development goals towards health for all (SDG3), safe water (SDG 6), affordable and clean energy (SDG 7), sustainable cities and communities (SDG11), and Climate Action (SDG 13) for the well-being of all.

The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change annually takes stock of the evolving links between health and climate change through 50+ peer-reviewed indicators. Since 2016, these indicators have provided regular, reliable global and regional stocktakes on climate change and health. Data in this year’s report reveal that people all around the world are facing record-breaking threats to their wellbeing, health and survival from the rapidly changing climate. This document summarises key country-level findings from the 2024 report of the Lancet Countdown for India, which reveal alarming factors.

The report finds that trends in heat and health are particularly concerning, with populations experiencing increases in exposure to high temperatures, undermining livelihoods and threatening people’s health and wellbeing. Exposure to high temperatures threatens people’s lives, health, and wellbeing, leading to death and heat-related disease, and increasing healthcare demand during heatwave episodes. Older people, socio-economically deprived communities, very young children, pregnant people, and those with underlying health problems are particularly at risk. Climatic conditions have grown increasingly suitable for the spread of vector-borne diseases including dengue and malaria. Air pollution is affecting the health of local populations, with a high burden of disease and deaths that could be avoided by transitioning to zero emission, clean energy sources. In 2023, 18.1 million people were living less than 1 metre above sea level in India. Sea level rise can affect human health through episodic flooding, permanent inundation, erosion, soil and drinking water contamination, vector- and water-borne disease, and mental health impacts, with populations living less than one metre above sea level particularly vulnerable. Droughts can impact crop yields and livestock, increasing the risk of food insecurity and malnutrition. They can also affect water security, impair sanitation, and increase the risk of infectious disease transmission. Each year from 2014 and 2023, an average of 42.7% of India’s land area experienced at least one month of extreme drought, nearly double what was seen from 1950 to 1960.

With COP30 focusing on adaptation, an NDTV analysis of the Adelphi report says that it provides a clear call to action: improve access to international, grant-based finance to avoid deepening debt burdens, channel funding directly to country-defined priorities, and intensify cross-sectoral collaboration between the climate and health communities. The stark financial figures confirm what medical experts have warned: the climate crisis is a direct public health emergency. Without immediate transformational investment in resilient health systems, the massive human cost of up to 15.6 million deaths by 2050 is a catastrophic outcome the world is currently choosing to finance through inaction.