Lancet Countdown chief Marina Romanello said three million heat-related deaths occurred worldwide in the eight years following the 2015 Paris Agreement. (EPA Images pic)PARIS: Climate change must be declared a "global health emergency" to shape governments' policies after heat caused three million deaths between 2016 and 2023, a report in The Lancet said Wednesday.

Published by the British medical journal ahead of the COP 31 climate summit in November, the 10th edition of the report brought together 146 researchers from 30 countries to assess the impact of climate change on the health of the world's population.

It said there were a record 710,000 heat-related deaths in 2023, with more than 70% of that toll linked to human-caused climate change.