Climate change, driven by fossil fuel emissions, is raising temperatures to dangerous new levels while worsening drought and food security, a new report by doctors and health experts warned Tuesday.

The record temperatures of 2023, the hottest year on record, meant the average person experienced 50 more days of dangerous temperatures than they would without climate change, according to the Lancet Countdown, an annual report based on the work of dozens of experts and institutions. academics. and UN agencies, including the World Health Organization.

Especially vulnerable are the elderly, with the number of heat-related deaths in people over 65 last year reaching a level 167% higher than the number of such deaths in the 1990s. Without climate change, the elderly Researchers would have expected that figure to increase 65% since the 1990s, according to the report.

“Year after year, deaths directly associated with climate change increase,” said Marina Belén Romanello, executive director of the Lancet Countdown.

“But the heat is also affecting not only mortality and increasing deaths, but also the diseases and pathologies associated with heat exposure,” he said.

For example, people who exercise outdoors are at increasing risk, he said. Companies face limited ability to work outdoors.

In fact, last year’s extreme heat cost the world an estimated 512 billion potential work hours, equivalent to hundreds of billions of dollars in potential revenue, according to the report.

“Similar to what we saw with the COVID-19 pandemic, it is key workers who tend to be more exposed and cannot protect themselves as easily during heatwaves, such as those working in one of our many hospitals without air conditioning, or outdoor construction workers,” data scientist Nathan Cheetham of King’s College London said in a statement. Cheetham was not involved in the study.

The authors warned that climate change is also making food less reliable.

As up to 48% of the world’s land area faced extreme drought conditions last year, the researchers said, around 151 million more people would be experiencing food insecurity as a result, compared to the years 1981-2010.

Last year’s extreme rains also affected approximately 60% of land, causing flooding and increasing risks of water contamination or infectious diseases.

The study’s authors urged the upcoming UN climate summit, COP29, to direct climate finance toward public health. COP29 talks begin on November 11 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday called on countries to “cure the disease of climate inaction” by dramatically reducing fossil fuel use and emissions to “create a fairer, safer and healthier future for all.”