The 2026 Lancet Countdown found that 56 of 194 World Health Organization member states had plans to adapt health services to climate change, a gap UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell urged governments to address at COP31.
At a World Meteorological Organization (WMO) press conference in Antalya on Monday, Nov. 9, Stiell said, “The climate crisis is now a global health crisis of pandemic proportions.” He linked the health emergency to continued coal, oil and gas use and forest destruction, and said adaptation cannot protect health systems on its own as temperatures rise.
At a separate Health Day ministerial, Stiell said, “No health system can be made resilient to an endlessly warming world.” He urged governments to involve health ministries in national climate planning and direct adaptation funds to countries facing heavy burdens with fewer resources. His proposed measures included training health workers for current risks, improving disease surveillance and early-warning systems, and ensuring facilities have clean power and water.
The Countdown’s tally rose from 14 countries in 2015 to 56 in 2026. It also estimated that heat figured in 710,000 deaths worldwide in 2023, attributing 71.5% of them to climate change. The report put deaths linked to ambient PM2.5 pollution from fossil-fuel use at 2.78 million that year. EconoTimes previously covered the report’s estimate of heat-related deaths.
WMO said the period from 2015 through 2026 is set to be the warmest 12-year span in its records. For January through September 2026, the global surface temperature average stood about 1.47°C above the 1850-1900 baseline, the agency reported.
The Countdown’s calculations put heat’s 2025 toll at 573 billion potential work hours and $1.07 trillion in lost income. It said countries least responsible for climate change often bear the greatest costs.
Stiell said COP30 produced adaptation indicators and a voluntary Health Action Plan. He called for health ministries to shape national climate plans and said the next Global Stocktake should assess what countries have implemented. COP31 is scheduled to continue in Antalya through Nov. 20.
