NEW DELHI, October 28, 2026 – India has ranked among the top countries globally with the highest heatwave exposure for highly vulnerable age groups—infants and older adults—alongside China, the US, and Russia, according to the tenth indicator report of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change.
The report highlights a deeply concerning global trend. While the total number of heatwave days globally decreased slightly from 2024’s historical high, 2025 was still recorded as the second-highest year on record for heatwave exposure. Globally, older adults were exposed to a staggering 10.8 billion person-days of heatwaves, while infants experienced 1.1 billion person-days.
When normalized by population size, the data shows that older adults experienced an average of 12.8 heatwave days per individual in 2025, while infants faced an average of 8.7 heatwave days per individual globally.
The authors of the report, led by researchers at the UK’s University College London, emphasized that while global climate action is picking up, it is failing to keep pace with rapid global warming. The health harms of climate change have grown significantly faster in the decade since the 2016 Paris Agreement compared to the previous one.
A decade after the Paris Agreement, the report’s authors are urgently calling for climate change to be formally declared a global health emergency. They are advocating for a new World Health Organization (WHO) instrument to enable a coordinated global response and urging governments worldwide to put public health at the absolute center of every climate decision—from emissions targets to climate funding.
“Our findings are unambiguous: the health harms of climate change are growing faster than the world’s response to them, and in many cases even accelerating,” stated Marina Romanello, executive director of the Lancet Countdown and professor at University College London. While acknowledging progress in clean energy and health system readiness, Romanello noted that the progress has been “too slow, too small, and isn’t reaching those who need it most.”
Highlighting the fatal consequences of rising temperatures, the report noted that in 2023 alone—the hottest year in the 2016-2025 period—heat was linked to a record 710,000 estimated deaths globally, exceeding mortalities from malaria or HIV. Alarmingly, 71.5 percent of these deaths were driven directly by climate change. Altogether, climate change is estimated to have caused nearly 3 million heat-related deaths between 2016 and 2023.
Published by True Roots Media Network