Australians lose sleep – and work – as temperatures rise   

Oct 28, 2026
New Daily

A new report calls for climate change to be recognised as a health emergency.



Australians are literally losing sleep over global warming, an international report has revealed, as rising temperatures make it harder to rest, exercise and work outdoors.   

Climate change is also costing the Australian economy $6.6 billion a year in potential lost earnings, while contributing to more droughts and heatwaves.


Researchers released the findings in the annual Lancet Countdown report on Wednesday, which also revealed that heat-related health risks and deaths increased across the world in the decade since the Paris Agreement.

The report’s authors called for climate change to be formally recognised and treated as a global health emergency, just weeks before world leaders were expected to meet in Turkey for the COP31 climate summit.

Researchers from more than 100 institutions contributed to the 10th annual Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change report, led by University College London.

They analysed the impact of climate change on human health, including heat-related deaths, infectious diseases, and risks from air pollution and food insecurity, as well as efforts to reduce fossil fuel and greenhouse gas emissions.

The report found health risks had accelerated, with annual average heat-related deaths rising by almost 36 per cent to 540,800 between 2016 and 2023.

In 2023, heat was linked to 710,000 deaths worldwide, and 71.5 per cent could be attributed to climate change.

heat
Australians have been exposed to a surge in risky outdoor conditions.
More than half of the world’s land experienced at least one month of extreme drought during 2025, it found, while more heatwaves and droughts contributed to food insecurity for an additional 127.9 million people in 2024.


The findings clearly demonstrated the rising risks of global warming and underlined the need for greater action, Lancet Countdown executive director Professor Marina Romanello said.

”A decade after the Paris Agreement, our findings are unambiguous: the health harms of climate change are growing faster than the world’s response to them, and in many cases even accelerating,” Romanello said.

”Progress has been too slow, too small, and isn’t reaching those who need it most.”

Rising night-time temperatures caused Australians to lose an average of 34 hours of sleep each year between 2021 and 2025 – 1.4 hours more than they did in earlier years, the report found.

Australians were also exposed to more than 100 additional hours of risky outdoor conditions than in the 1990s, while heat reduced their capacity to work by an average of 127 million hours a year at a potential cost of $6.6 billion.

heat
A world of more heatwaves and droughts doesn’t bode well for firefighters.

The report recommended recognising climate change as a global health emergency through United Nations and World Health Organisation measures, as well as reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Evidence for the change was clear and emission reductions must follow, Lancet Countdown board chair and former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark said.

”Governments must double down on their climate action commitments and rebuild momentum for international co-operation,” she said.

A bit thin WhiteKnight.  You can do better.
We've come away from a dryer colder Younger Dryas period, towards a hotter, wetter period.
Control freak Lefties trying to stop the world from spinning, because their air conditioned lifestyles can't hack the climate change.

From the actual report -

Climate reanalysis - that is it wasn't found first time it needed "new improved" modelling to find it.

"Unless otherwise specified, the indicators that incorporate retrospective climate data make use of the climate reanalysis datasets. "

"The environmental variables required for hourly estimates of heat stress risk using the SMA EHP v2 were obtained from European Centre for Medium–Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ERA5 climate reanalysis23 and the ERA5-HEAT datasets"

" Wind speed was set constant at the self-generated velocity for brisk walking (0.5 m·s-1).21"

"The relative proportions (within the total population) of agricultural, construction,
manufacturing, and other sector workers are only reported at country level. These
proportions are applied unmodified to working populations in all grid cells within a
country and thus the analysis does not capture differences in these proportions
between one grid cell and next within the same country."

Methodology -

"Analysis performed with the above-described methodology has shown that the ERA5 reanalysis data regularly understate maximum air temperatures. The ERA5 deviation from the ensemble average of several other data sources varies by location but is generally in the order of 1–4°C lower and is especially pronounced in some coastal regions.45 "

Comparing air temperatures to an "ensemble of models", but it is the
reanalysis that is at fault, not the ensemble or the models.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(26)01779-4/fullt...

https://www.thelancet.com/cms/10.1016/S0140-6736(26)01779-4/attachment/f1638b7e-...

So models, assumptions and climate reanalysis.

whiteknight wrote on Oct 29^th, 2026 at 4:57am:

Oh, *uck off, Greta. Just do.

Your Uncle

‘We’re calling for climate change to be formally recognised as a global health emergency’

https://www.climatecentre.org/17961/were-calling-for-climate-change-to-be-recogn...

The 2026 Lancet Countdown report on the links between climate and health says the growth of renewable energy in recent years “has exceeded expectations, delivering health and economic benefits globally”, while tackling climate change has become a priority for global health. But it adds that “emissions continue to reach record highs [and] climate change is increasingly affecting health and threatening people’s survival worldwide”.

“The window of opportunity to avoid a potentially catastrophic future is rapidly closing. Weakening multilateralism and growing climate change disinformation, denialism, and scepticism are now increasingly undermining collective action and threatening to reverse progress to date.”

The Countdown report, issued yesterday, documents the growing health impacts of climate change through more than 50 key indicators while also identifying opportunities for a health-centred response.

These indicators show that, since the Paris Agreement, “people have experienced not only increasing climate change-related health impacts and risks, but also an acceleration in these changes across numerous impacts compared with the previous decade.”

‘Rapidly growing threats’

With global heat, for example, during 2016–23 heat was associated with an average of 540,800 deaths per year, reaching a record-high of 710,000 globally in 2023, of which just over 70 per cent were attributed to the influence of climate change; less developed countries experienced the highest proportion of heat-related deaths.

More frequent heatwaves and extreme droughts are increasingly threatening food security – a trend that has accelerated, while extreme precipitation has also accelerated, “exacerbating the risk and occurrence of health-threatening floods and landslides.”

The world has also seen expanding environmental suitability for the mosquitoes that carry dengue, malaria and West Nile virus.

Marina Romanello, Lancet Countdown Executive Director, said yesterday: “Real progress has been made in clean energy, health-system readiness and health-protective regulation – all of which are already delivering real benefits to local communities. However, progress has been too slow, too small, and it isn’t reaching those who need to most.

“That is why we are calling for climate change to be formally recognized as a global health emergency, with health placed at the centre of every climate decision.”

Countdown says the current severe El Niño “threatens to compound the impacts of climate change and trigger unprecedented climate-related humanitarian crises globally. Because of the rapidly growing threats over the past decade, climate change has become a global health emergency.”

Hung Uncut Black Muslim Jew wrote on Nov 1^st, 2026 at 6:33pm:



But that figure came from models.

Hung Uncut Black Muslim Jew wrote on Nov 1^st, 2026 at 6:33pm:



And yet the Our World in Data food graphics shows that to be false.

Hung Uncut Black Muslim Jew wrote on Nov 1^st, 2026 at 6:33pm:


Aedes Egyptii is wide spread, including warm temperate areas. Dengue travels in humans. So not so much climate change.

As for malaria, formerly known as the ague, was once widespread in Britain. So not so much climate change.

West Nile virus, from Culex mosquitoes- "Culex mosquitoes are found on every continent except Antarctica and are native to Africa, Asia, and Europe, having been introduced to the Americas and Australia. They thrive in both tropical and temperate regions worldwide."

So again, not climate change.

Hung Uncut Black Muslim Jew wrote on Nov 1^st, 2026 at 6:33pm:


So where is this El Nino currently "severe", given that it was supposed to being drought to Australia?

Hung Uncut Black Muslim Jew wrote on Nov 1^st, 2026 at 6:33pm:


You have shown no climate emergency.

lee wrote on Nov 1^st, 2026 at 7:55pm:



Glad you think your 'opinions' are important Lee !

I have no interest in rebutting your 'opinions' Lee.

They are yours, and not from an extremist site, funded by big fossil ?