Managing climate change risks is imperative for human health

In 2021, extreme weather and climate events caused preventable injuries, illnesses and deaths. A clear imperative exists to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase the sustainability and climate resilience of health systems. Countries and communities must implement strategies to mitigate climate change and invest in health systems to protect their populations.

Key advances

• Climate change is already causing preventable injuries, illnesses and deaths⁵; the health burden is projected to increase with each additional unit of warming⁷.

• Our short-term future will be characterized by increasingly frequent and intense extreme weather and climate events, for which communities are ill-prepared⁵.

• Indicators of the impacts of and responses to climate change provide a clear imperative for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing the sustainability and climate resilience of health systems⁵.

• Current investments in research and building climate-resilient health systems are insufficient to effectively manage increasing health risks⁵.

• The economic value of the health benefits of policies to mitigate climate change exceeds the estimated costs of mitigation⁸.