Climate change: Scientists call for declaration of 'global health emergency' after new report

On the hottest day ever recorded since 1947, a healthcare worker pushes a stretcher down a corridor in the emergency department of Pellegrin University Hospital in Bordeaux, June 23, 2026. PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP "This isn't a gradual worsening; it's a step change that must be recognized as the global health emergency it is." Marina Romanello's words were carefully chosen. The specialist in climate change and health at University College London is also the director of the science journal Lancet Countdown .

Her statement comes on the heels of the Wednesday, October 28, release of the journal's 10 th annual report, and ahead of the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31) in Antalya, Turkey, scheduled for November 9. An imprint of the British journal The Lancet , coordinated in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO), the Lancet Countdown brings together more than 300 researchers from a wide range of disciplines and over 100 scientific and medical institutions in some 30 countries.

For the past 10 years, it has tracked the health impacts of climate change using about 50 different indicators. Its latest report paints a grim picture: not only has the situation failed to improve in the 10 years since the Paris climate accords, which set out in December 2015 to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, but it has actually worsened. You have 80.75% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.