Climate Change Declared a Health Emergency: Lancet Research Team Proposes New WHO System
Published
The Lancet Countdown, an international research project run by the British medical journal The Lancet, released its tenth annual report on climate change and health on October 28, 2026. The project examines each year how climate change is affecting people's health.
The report puts forward a recommendation that the World Health Organization (WHO) should create a new system to formally recognize climate change as a "health emergency." A health emergency refers to a situation in which diseases or other threats spread and endanger the lives and health of many people. The research team believes that such a system would enable countries to respond more quickly and systematically to health damage caused by climate change.
The report also states that climate change affects people's health through heat-related illness, the spread of infectious diseases, air pollution, and other pathways. It notes that older people, children, and residents of poor areas are especially vulnerable to these effects. The report stresses that governments need to link measures to protect health with climate change measures.
The relationship between climate change and health is also a close issue for Japan. Attention is focusing on how the national government and local authorities will advance countermeasures, and how discussions on international systems will develop.
Sources: Sustainable Japan
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