Climate change is amplifying the severity of health problems across the world, including in the United States, a new study by the Lancet Journal warned on Thursday.

In a study of 84 countries called the Lancet Countdown On Health and Climate Change, the research team found that climate-related health risks across 44 different categories, including heat death and hunger, have worsened in 2020.

In the report’s title, it refers to itself as a “code red for a healthy future”, but outside researchers and international officials said that the report insists it is more urgent than ever to act against climate change.

“Code Red is not even a hot enough color for this report,” said Stanford University tropical medicine professor Dr. Michele Barry told the Associated Press. Dr. Barry did not participate in The Lancet's study.

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, called the Lancet's report an "essential scorecard for how our work is going", adding that more work was needed to address health risks from climate change.

"The argument for rapid climate change action has never been clearer, " said Tedros. "I hope this year's report elicits action that is so urgently needed"

Among the report’s findings was that vulnerable communities worldwide remained at the highest risk of experiencing climate-related health issues. For example, they note that there were more days of extreme heat last year and its impacts were most felt by the older people and young children, who are more vulnerable to heat-related health problems.

Vulnerability to climate-sensitive diseases, particularly in poorer countries, was another factor that the researchers emphasized. They note that more people live near regions where these diseases flourish like coastal areas. They capture this trend further by pointing out that malaria seasons in poor countries have “expanded” since the 1950s.

A separate report accompanying the global one was released for the United States. The report centered around what it said was the interrelated climate hazards of extreme heat, droughts, and wildfires to "highlight the complexities and nuances of the impacts of climate change on health." Last year, the U.S. experienced one of its worst heat waves on record, severe wildfires across its West Coast, and its hottest summer in nearly eight decades.

Inequities across race and class were blamed for exasperating the effects of these health problems on the communities most impacted by climate change. In each of the three categories of climate issues they examined, researchers noted the disproportionate health and economic effects on low-income Americans and communities of color when extreme weather events occur.

Fighting climate change has been a central point in President Joe Biden’s domestic and foreign policy agendas. His administration has unveiled a number of initiatives to move the U.S. closer to renewable and clean energy technologies to move away from sources like coal. Biden has also reinserted the U.S. as a global player in the fight against climate change by rejoining the Paris Climate Accords after former President Donald Trump left the agreement.

President Biden is due to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP26, in Glasgow, Scotland from Nov. 1 to Nov. 2.

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