“THEN climate crisis is killing us,” say international medical experts, who are now denouncing the world’s over-reliance on fossil fuels as the cause changing of the climate which adversely affects health.

“The world is at a turning point. (…) We must change. Otherwise, our children will face an acceleration of climate change that will put their survival at risk,” warns Anthony Costello, professor and co-chair of the Lancet Countdown, an annual survey conducted by 99 experts from 51 institutions, mostly from the World Health Organization (WHO). ) World Meteorological Organization (WMO) under the direction of University College London (UCL).

As countries and health systems struggle to cope with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, this analysis, published days before the start of the COP27 UN climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, highlights that in the vast majority of countries there are still hundreds of billions of dollars in fossil fuel subsidies, amounts that match or even exceed their health care budgets.

Great rise in deaths from heat

“Over and persistent reliance on fossil fuels is rapidly exacerbating climate change” and “has dangerous health consequences,” the study highlights.

According to Elizabeth Robinson, director of the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics, rising temperatures and extreme weather events, which are becoming more likely due to climate change, are leading to nearly 100 million more people in acute food insecurity today than between 1981 and 2010. year (LSE), one of the main participants in the study.

In addition, between 2017 and 2021, heat-related deaths increased by 68% compared to 2000-2004, and human exposure on high fire risk days increased by 61% compared to the same period.

The climate crisis is also affecting the spread of infectious diseases, according to a report based on a study by international medical experts. The favorable period for malaria transmission has increased by almost a third (32.1%) in parts of the Americas and by 14% in Africa over the past decade compared with 1951-1960. Globally, the risk of dengue transmission increased by 12% over the same period.

“The climate crisis is killing us. This harms not only the health of our planet, but all its inhabitants (…), and the addiction to fossil fuels becomes uncontrollable,” responded UN Secretary-General António Guterres, calling for investment in renewable energy and climate. stability change.

A year ago, the WHO estimated that between 2030 and 2050, about 250,000 additional deaths per year could be attributed to climate change.

“150 years” of decarbonization

Countries themselves are contributing to these health crises by subsidizing fossil fuels, according to the study: 69 of the 86 governments analyzed are subsidizing the production and consumption of fossil fuels totaling $400 billion in 2019.

Result: “The carbon intensity of the global energy system (the sector that contributes the most to greenhouse gas emissions) has decreased by less than 1% since 1992.” the energy system will take 150 years,” the report emphasizes.

“The current strategies of many governments and companies are locking the world into a fatally warmer future, tying us to fossil fuels that are rapidly eroding our prospects for a sustainable world,” said Paul Akins, professor of resources and policy at the Bartlett School of University College London.

To address this issue, the researchers are calling for a “health-focused response.”

Therefore, improving air quality will prevent fossil fuel-related deaths, which totaled 1.3 million in 2020 alone.

In addition, accelerating the transition to a plant-based diet would reduce emissions in the agricultural sector by 55% and prevent up to 11.5 million diet-related deaths per year.

^{Source: APE-MEB, AFP.}