British Medical Journal: Deaths from climate change will triple in next 20 years if inaction continues, warns report

Source: British Medical Journal

Zosia Kmietowicz

The number of deaths attributable to climate change will reach one million a year by 2030—up from 350 000 this year—if efforts to limit worldwide rises in temperature are not speeded up, warns a new report.

Children in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia will make up close to 80% of the casualties. Their deaths, from malnutrition, diarrhoeal disease, and malaria, are entirely preventable with better distribution of mosquito nets, rehydration solutions, and basic dietary and vitamin supplements, says the report, which has been produced jointly by Development Assistance Research Associates (DARA), a humanitarian research organisation, and the Climate Vulnerable Forum, a group of countries vulnerable to climate change, including the Maldives, Bangladesh, and Barbados.

Their report, the Climate Vulnerability Monitor, analyses the effects that climate change will have in 184 countries in the four key …

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