Heat, Smog and Mosquitoes: How Climate Change Is Making India Sick, Says Lancet Report

Rising temperatures, toxic air and mosquito-borne diseases are adding to India’s growing climate-related health burden. (Photo: AI Generated)

The health harms of climate change are growing faster than the world’s response to them. And, India is among the countries bearing the heaviest burden, according to the 10th Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change, released on 28 October ahead of the COP31 climate summit.

The report is led by University College London and produced in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO). It tracks 54 indicators and brings together 146 researchers from more than 100 institutions. Its central finding is that many climate-related health risks grew faster in 2016-25, the decade after the Paris Agreement, than in the ten years before it.

Heat related deaths are rising mostly due to climate change. (Graph: AI Generated)

Nights bring little relief. Indians lost an estimated 64 hours of sleep a year in 2021-25 because of high night-time temperatures, about three hours more than in 1986-2005.

The report finds that medium human development index (HDI) countries, a group it describes as dominated by India, had the highest absolute heat-stress burden, at 2,430 hours per person a year. These countries also had the highest…

Original source: https://www.timesnownews.com/lifestyle