College comments on 2025 Report of The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change

College comments on 2025 Report of The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change

The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (“the College”) has responded to the publication today of the 2025 Report of The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change. The report measures the impact of climate change on human health across the planet. Among the findings this year it identifies that 2.5 million deaths every year are attributable to the air pollution that comes from continued burning of fossil fuels, while climate change has seen the rate of heat-related deaths surge 23% since the 1990s, to 546,000 a year. 

 Speaking today, Professor Andrew Elder, President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, said:

The College welcomes the 2025 Lancet Countdown report which provides one of the most comprehensive, evidence-based updates on the impact of climate change on the health of the global population.

We are very concerned that the report sets out in stark terms that most indicators tracking health threats have reached unprecedented levels, with surging heat-related deaths- often affecting older people in particular- increased air pollution deaths due to wildfires and growing levels of dengue transmission.

Medical and health leaders and individual clinicians have an important role to play in both speaking out about how climate change is causing real harm to population health across the planet, and pressing governments not to go backwards but to accelerate investment to meet climate targets. Our College will continue to work collaboratively to do this in order to ensure that policy makers are fully aware of the severe health risks of not taking action now.

Professor Jill Belch, Co-lead of the College’s Working Group on Air Pollution and Health, said: 

As the Lancet Countdown report shows, CO2 saturated seas and wildfire smoke are two key accelerators of climate change. In addition to driving global heating, wildfires pose serious and growing risks to human health through air pollution. 

The 2023 Canadian wildfires led to 33,000 premature deaths in the USA from wildfire smoke inhalation[i]. In 2025, 34 Scottish wildfires have already been detected by NASA’s FIRMS satellite system[ii] and the numbers are rising year on year. Each event adds to Scotland’s air-pollution burden, which already causes up to 2,700 premature deaths annually[iii] through damage to the lungs, heart, and brain.

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[i] Zhang Q., et al. Long-range PM₂.₅ pollution and health impacts from the 2023 Canadian wildfires. Nature. 2025. DOI:10.1038/s41586-025-09482-1. This study reports, among other findings, an estimated 33,000 chronic premature deaths in the U.S. attributable to PM₂.₅ exposure from Canada’s 2023 wildfires.

[ii] https://www.globalforestwatch.org/dashboards/country/GBR/3/?category=fires

[iii] https://publichealthscotland.scot/population-health/environmental-health-impacts/outdoor-air-pollution-and-health/overview/scale-of-the-problem

The full Lancet report is available here