Six interventions on climate and health could prevent 1.6 million deaths a year
A WHO report published on November 4, on the eve of Cop31 in Antalya, estimates that the global scale-up of six climate and health actions would prevent one death in every 40 worldwide, with economic benefits of $3.9 trillion.
Friday, 6 November 2026
The World Health Organization published on November 4, 2026 the report “Global benefits and costs of prioritized actions on climate change and health”, just days before the opening of Cop31, the UN climate conference scheduled in Antalya, Turkey, from November 9 to 20.
The document scales up the effect of six interventions that jointly address climate and public health: heatwave early warning systems, climate-resilient water services, basic sanitation services, cleaner household fuels and fossil fuel pricing policies. According to WHO projections, if these six actions were extended on a global scale, around 1.6 million deaths a year could be prevented worldwide: a figure that the report itself translates into a more readable benchmark, one death prevented in every 40 worldwide.
Alongside the figure on preventable mortality, the report estimates economic benefits of $3.9 trillion, to which a further $5.4 trillion in overall fiscal benefits would be added.
The limit that the report itself places on these numbers lies in their nature: these are projections linked to a hypothetical global-scale extension of interventions that today are applied only partially, not results already achieved. The figure of 1.6 million deaths prevented per year therefore describes a scenario that is attainable if the six actions were adopted everywhere, not the measured effect of policies already in force in every country. It is within this global-scale scenario, and not in a retrospective measurement, that both the mortality figure and the economic estimates released by WHO on the eve of Cop31 should be read.