Víctor Resco de Dios
Lecturer of Forestry Engineering and Global Change, University of Lleida
The Countdown report, published annually by The Lancet since 2017, analyses the impacts of climate change on health. This year's report highlights how climate change resulting from greenhouse gas emissions, coupled with the inability of our leaders to take adaptive measures, is leaving us with a growing trail of preventable deaths. We are talking about deaths related to heat waves, pollution, or diseases such as dengue fever, which are spreading with global warming. The report also quantifies how Spain has lost more than 170 million hours of work due to increasing climate stress, and that there has been a 5% global loss in competitiveness.
The year 2023 has seen the second-highest subsidy for fossil fuels. Taxpayers have “donated” $956 billion to these companies globally through their taxes. It is particularly striking that, following the closure of its nuclear power plants, Germany has become one of the six countries providing the most subsidies for fossil fuels, with almost $62 billion annually (a subsidy equivalent to 11.5% of its health budget). This is due to the need to lower energy prices after relying on Russian gas and solar energy, and should teach us that climate change should scare us much more than nuclear energy, as it is a much more real, tangible and immediate threat to our health and economy.
Spain is far from that figure, but we still spend £6.8 billion on subsidising climate change, which is equivalent to 1% of the General State Budget in 2023, the last time it was approved. The study estimates that some 40,000 people in Spain died prematurely due to insufficient consumption of plant-based foods, a reminder of the high cost to our health of not following the Mediterranean diet.
In short, the study paints an increasingly dire picture, showing how the climate forecasts that were once considered a distant and future scenario are now already here. And what we are seeing now is just a preview of the future that awaits us if we continue as we are now.