Almost one-third of the heatwave days India experienced in 2024 were driven by climate change, according to a new report by the medical journal The Lancet.
The report found that India recorded an average of 19.8 heatwave days last year, of which 6.6 days would not have occurred without human-induced climate change.
It also estimated that heat exposure in 2024 resulted in the loss of 247 billion potential labour hours, mostly in the agriculture and construction sectors, amounting to an economic loss of about $194 billion (£151 billion).
While heatwaves are not new to India, their frequency and intensity have been rising steadily over the past few decades because of global warming.
Prolonged exposure to extreme heat has serious repercussions on health, overwhelming the body's ability to regulate temperature and increasing risks of dehydration, heatstroke, cardiovascular stress, and even death, particularly among vulnerable populations such as the elderly, infants, and outdoor workers.
The 2025 Lancet Countdown report warns that the health risks posed by rising global temperatures are now more severe than ever. Throughout last year, 152 record-breaking extreme weather events were registered across 61 countries, and life-threatening, extreme heat events are becoming more intense than previously predicted, the report stated.
Jeremy Farrar, assistant director-general for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and Care at the World Health Organization (WHO), emphasized that the climate crisis is a health crisis. Every fraction of a degree of warming costs lives and livelihoods. The report found that heat-related mortality has increased by 23% worldwide since the 1990s, now averaging around 546,000 deaths each year.
It also highlighted that the average person globally was exposed to 16 days of extreme heat last year that would not have occurred without climate change. Dr. Marina Romanello of University College London, who led the report's analysis, asserted that this report paints a bleak and undeniable picture of the devastating health harms reaching all corners of the world, underscoring the urgency for global action to end reliance on fossil fuels.
The report further noted the deterioration of India's air quality, with toxic levels particularly affecting the Indo-Gangetic plains during winter months. In 2022, atmospheric pollution caused 1.7 million deaths, primarily due to tiny PM2.5 particles, with 44% of these deaths linked to harmful emissions from fossil fuel combustion.
The report comes ahead of the COP30 summit in Brazil next month, calling for immediate action to address both air pollution and the broader climate crisis.
