ঢাকারবিবার , ৯ অগাস্ট ২০২৬
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JUNE 7: A traffic officer wears an N95 mask in Times Square amid a smoky haze from wildfires in Canada on June 7, 2023 in New York City. New York topped the list of most polluted major cities in the world on Tuesday night, as smoke from the fires continues to blanket the East Coast. (Photo by David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)
In a powerful new report to the United Nations Human Rights Council, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Climate Change sounds a stark warning: fossil fuels are not only heating the planet—they’re harming our health on a massive, global scale.
Released in May 2025 and titled “The Imperative of Defossilizing Our Economies” (A/HRC/59/42), the report reveals the full extent of health damage caused by fossil fuels—from cradle to grave—and calls for a shift beyond decarbonization to true “defossilization.”
Fossil Fuels: A Global Health Emergency
The report makes it clear: fossil fuels are the main driver of climate change, but also directly violate human rights—including the most fundamental one—the right to health.
From coal mines and oil rigs to gas flares and plastic factories, the entire fossil fuel life cycle causes “intergenerational, widespread, and severe health harms.” These harms aren’t just collateral damage—they’re embedded into the industry’s operations and economics.
Over 8 Million Deaths a Year
Air pollution from burning fossil fuels kills more than 8 million people annually, most of them in low- and middle-income countries. The damage reaches deep into the human body, affecting every organ system. According to the report, fossil fuel pollution is linked to:
1. Respiratory diseases like asthma and COPD
2. Heart attacks and strokes
3. Cancers—including leukemia
4. Neurological disorders and developmental delays
5. Infertility and pregnancy complications
6. Low birth weight and preterm births
The report highlights how children and the elderly are especially vulnerable, often suffering permanent and lifelong health effects from exposure to fossil fuel pollution.
Toxic Neighborhoods
People living near fossil fuel infrastructure—refineries, drilling sites, pipelines—suffer from chronic exposure to toxic chemicals and radioactive waste. In many such communities, the risk of cancer, birth defects, and mental health disorders is far above national averages.
The report underscores particular risks from fracking, oil sands, and offshore drilling, which can contaminate drinking water, trigger earthquakes, and cause severe reproductive and developmental harm.
And it’s not just energy—petrochemical pollution from plastics, another fossil-fuel product, is quietly linked to malnutrition, hormonal disruption, and cognitive disorders.
Climate Change Is Crashing Our Health Systems
The climate crisis, supercharged by fossil fuels, is overwhelming health infrastructure. Extreme weather—floods, heatwaves, hurricanes—are knocking out power to hospitals, disrupting medical supply chains, and driving spikes in infectious diseases like cholera and dengue.
To make matters worse, the refineries and facilities that process fossil fuels are increasingly exposed to these same climate threats, creating double-jeopardy risks for public health and the environment.
The Cost We’re Already Paying
Gas flaring alone costs the world $7.4 billion in health damages each year. Meanwhile, governments continue to pour billions into fossil fuel subsidies—money that could fund hospitals, vaccines, or clean water systems instead.
The report is blunt: fossil fuel subsidies are robbing public health systems of vital resources.
More Than Carbon: A Call for “Defossilization”
One of the report’s most urgent warnings is against what it calls “carbon tunnel vision”—the idea that if we just capture emissions or offset carbon, we can keep using fossil fuels.
But the damage fossil fuels do goes far beyond carbon emissions. Even with zero-carbon technology, the pollution, biodiversity loss, toxic waste, and health risks would continue. That’s why the report calls for a complete phase-out—“defossilization”—rather than just decarbonization.
A Human Rights Imperative
This isn’t just an environmental issue—it’s a human rights crisis. The right to health, to clean water, to a safe home, to a livable future—fossil fuels are eroding them all.
The report calls on governments to end fossil fuel subsidies, invest in clean energy, and center human health in all climate policy decisions. Anything less, it argues, is a failure to protect the rights of the most vulnerable.
As the world debates energy transitions, the message from the UN is clear: we cannot afford to ignore the human toll of fossil fuels any longer. Health is on the front lines—and defossilization is the only cure.
