Climate-intensified natural disasters could lead to $12.5tr in economic losses and an additional 14.5 million deaths by 2050, a report presented by the World Economic Forum at their annual meeting in Davos has found.

The report, Quantifying the Impact of Climate Change on Human Health, has analysed the effects of indirect climate change on human health and predicted that healthcare systems will face an additional $1.1tr burden due to climate-induced impacts.

The report analysed six major climate-driven events categories: floods, droughts, heat waves, tropical storms, wildfires and rising sea level to assess their toll on the health service and the costs of these events.

When analysing the effects of climate change, the report identified floods as posing the highest risk of climate-induced mortality, accounting for 8.5 million deaths by 2050. Droughts were identified as the second-highest cause of deaths with an anticipated 3.2 million. Air pollution was also highlighted as a major risk to public health, with an estimated 9 million deaths a year.

In terms of the economic effects, the report found that heat waves are estimated to take the highest economic toll with an estimated loss of $7.1tr by 2050. Prolonged heatwaves have already killed tens of thousands of people, and with hotter conditions set to continue the strain on healthcare will be devastating.

The report also identified that the increased global temperature will trigger a disastrous risk in climate-sensitive diseases including malaria and dengue and increase the risk in previously less affected climate zones such as Europe and the US.

The effects of climate change will continue to exacerbate global health inequalities, with the most vulnerable groups being left at risk. Regions such as Africa and southern Asia are the most exposed to the impacts of climate change due to limited resources and inadequate infrastructure which will further impact their ability to adapt to environmental changes.

The report based its analysis on scenarios developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on the most likely trajectory for the planet’s rising average temperature, 2.5 to 2.9C over pre-industrial levels.

Though the report identifies the catastrophic effect of climate change on the health landscape, it does make clear that there is time for the global economy to reduce emissions to negate these effects. But policymakers and global stakeholders must recognise and address the lack of readiness of healthcare systems and use this time to prepare and invest in infrastructure to face these challenges.

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