By Abbas Nazil
Climate change could cost businesses over $1.5 trillion in productivity losses by 2050, according to a new report from the World Economic Forum and Boston Consulting Group.
The report highlights that climate-induced illnesses and injuries across critical sectors like food, agriculture, healthcare, and the built environment will significantly reduce worker availability and undermine economic growth.
Without urgent adaptation, the report warns that climate stressors may lead to 14.5 million excess deaths and global economic losses amounting to $12.5 trillion by mid-century.
The World Economic Forum emphasized that good health is directly linked to economic equality and productivity, making climate change a pressing threat to workers and vulnerable populations, particularly women, children, and migrant groups.
During its Sustainable Development Impact Meetings in New York, health leaders, including WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, stressed the importance of prevention, digital innovation, and stronger partnerships to build resilient health systems and universal healthcare.
The WHO also called for increased investment in combating noncommunicable diseases (NCDs).
A new report revealed that an annual investment of $3 per person could yield up to $1 trillion in economic benefits by 2030.
Leaders at the UN General Assembly supported this move, citing it as both cost-effective and essential to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
Other notable health updates include the development of an AI tool capable of predicting a person’s risk of more than 1,000 diseases, a breakthrough daily weight-loss pill, and the Gates Foundation’s $912 million pledge to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.
Experts stress that the combined threats of climate change and NCDs demand urgent global action, greater financing, and stronger cross-sector collaboration to protect health, safeguard economies, and ensure a resilient future for societies worldwide.
