Global warming: Ageing, urban population vulnerable to heat-related death

In 2017, some 157 million vulnerable people were exposed to heatwaves. Some 153 billion hours of labour were lost last year due to heat exposure

Climate change is making more people around the world vulnerable to heat exposure, putting them at greater risk of heart and kidney disease, heat stress, and other heat-related killers, scientists warned on Wednesday.

Global warming's effects look most serious for ageing and urban populations and people with chronic health conditions. And Europe and the eastern Mediterranean are more vulnerable than Africa and southeast Asia due to many older people living in densely populated cities, the researchers said in an analysis in The Lancet medical journal.

"Trends in the impacts of climate change, exposures and vulnerabilities show unacceptably high risk for health, now