Lancet Report Links India's Fossil Fuel Subsidies to Rising Climate Health Costs

The 2025 Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change finds that climate change is killing one person every minute globally, costing the world economy $1.09 trillion in lost labour productivity and pushing 124 million more people into food insecurity. India's direct fossil fuel subsidies on LPG, kerosene, diesel under-recoveries and petroleum tax concessions run into multiples of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's allocation of Rs 1,06,530 crore in the 2026-27 Budget.

Twelve of 20 indicators tracking health threats reached record levels in 2025, according to the Lancet Countdown, a collaboration of 128 experts across 71 institutions including the World Health Organization. Heat-related mortality is up 23 per cent since the 1990s, with an average of 546,000 deaths per year now attributable to extreme heat. In 2024, the average person experienced 16 additional days of dangerous heat that would not have occurred without climate change; for infants and those above 65, the figure exceeded 20 heatwave days. The global economy lost 640 billion potential labour hours to heat in 2024, representing a $1.09 trillion output loss equal to nearly one per cent of global GDP.

India's exposure is acute. Delhi's average maximum temperature breached 45 degrees Celsius on May 19, 2026, with hospitals across the National Capital Region logging measurable rises in admissions for heatstroke, cardiac distress and dehydration concentrated among outdoor workers and the elderly. India, with one of the world's largest exposed workforces spanning construction, agriculture, logistics and delivery, carries a disproportionate share of heat-related labour losses. The Lancet South Asia regional brief documents that least developed nations lost the equivalent of 6 per cent of GDP to heat-induced labour reductions in 2024. Global fossil fuel subsidies reached $956 billion in 2023, exceeding global climate finance, and in 15 of 87 major-emitting countries exceeded the national health budget.

The Lancet Countdown identifies three actionable interventions for India. First, redirect fossil fuel subsidies into health system resilience, with even a 25 per cent reduction in subsidy outlays able to transform State-level Heat Action Plans, hospital cooling and primary health centre capacity within two budget cycles. Second, reframe India's Nationally Determined Contributions around health outcomes — deaths averted and labour hours preserved — rather than carbon tonnes, which the Countdown's authors argue are politically inert. Third, lead the re-framing of climate commitments at international forums, where India's voice as a climate-vulnerable major economy carries significant weight. The global retreat from coal prevented an estimated 160,000 premature deaths per year between 2010 and 2022, demonstrating that climate action delivers measurable health dividends.

Key figure — Rs 1,06,530 crore ($12.8 billion) Union health budget for 2026-27