Climate, double the number of deaths in Italy compared to the 1990s
The causes: rising temperatures and smog. Ours is one of the countries most exposed to increasing extremes
Key points
"Climate change is claiming victims and increasingly damaging health, livelihoods and the economy even in Italy," one of the countries most exposed to rising temperatures and extreme heat waves, and to extreme weather phenomena in general, as well as to air pollution.
This is what emerges from the 'Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change', a maxi-report that takes stock every year of the evolving links between health and climate change by analysing the trends of more than 50 peer-reviewed indicators. According to the ninth global 2025 report, led by University College London, produced in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and published in the journal The Lancet, inaction against climate change is paid for in millions of lives lost every year worldwide. And Italy is not exempt.
Heat waves
As far as our country is concerned, experts calculate that in 2024 people were each exposed to an average of 46 days of heatwaves. And 72 per cent, or 33 of these 'hellish' temperature days, would not have occurred without climate change, they warn. Compared to the period 1990-1999, in 2024 people were exposed to an average of 434 more hours of ambient heat that posed a moderate or increased risk of stress in the event of some moderate outdoor physical activity. This is a record, the experts note.
The impact of rising temperatures is even more evident if one considers the trend of heat-related fatalities over the decades: from 2012 to 2021, according to the analysis, there were approximately 7,400 heat-related deaths per year in Italy, more than double the average for the period 1990-1999. And then there is the loss of productivity: in 2024, exposure to heat led to a loss of 364 million potential working hours, i.e. a record 15 hours per person, and 181 per cent more than in the period 1990-1999. The construction sector accounted for 40 per cent of the losses in 2024.
Inquinamento
Anche l’inquinamento atmosferico rappresenta una minaccia crescente, resa ancora più intensa dal climate change: tra il 2020 e il 2024, l’inquinamento da fumo causato dagli incendi boschivi ha causato una media stimata di 1.100 morti all’anno in Italia. Quanto allo smog, nel 2022 l’Italia ha registrato il tasso di mortalità più alto per inquinamento atmosferico da combustibili fossili liquidi e gassosi in Europa (41 decessi ogni 100mila persone). Nel 2019-2023, il 98,45% della popolazione è stata esposta a livelli giornalieri di PM10 superiori al limite massimo consentito dall’Oms (45 μg/m³). Nel 2022, le emissioni di CO₂ derivanti dalla combustione di combustibili fossili hanno raggiunto 310.289 chilotonnellate. Gli esperti stimano che si sono registrati 63.700 decessi associati alle polveri sottili PM2.5 di origine antropica, con una riduzione però del 27% rispetto al 2010, e 27.800 dei decessi nel 2022 sono stati associati alla combustione di combustibili fossili, a cui ha contribuito ma
