The World Health Organization (WHO) has said global warming caused the deaths of 150,000 people in 2000 and has warned the death toll could double again in the next 30 years if current trends are not reversed.
One heatwave killed 20,000 people in Europe alone this year, the WHO said, publishing a book on health-weather links at a UN environment conference.
Climate change, linked by scientists to human emissions of gases such as carbon dioxide from cars and factories, is causing more frequent floods and droughts and melting ice caps.
"An estimated 150,000 deaths . . . were caused in the year 2000 due to climate change," the study reported. A further 5.5 million healthy years of life were lost worldwide due to debilitating diseases caused by climate change, it said.
"The 1990s were the hottest decade on record and the upward trend in the world's temperature does not look like it is abating," it said. "In Europe this past summer, for example, an estimated 20,000 people died due to extremely hot temperatures."
The situation will worsen if climate trends continue, WHO experts said at a news conference to launch the book.