Overview

Climate change presents a fundamental threat to human health. It affects the physical
environment as well as all aspects of both natural and human systems – including social
and economic conditions and the functioning of health systems. It is therefore a threat
multiplier, undermining and potentially reversing decades of health progress. As climatic
conditions change, more frequent and intensifying weather and climate events are
observed, including storms, extreme heat, floods, droughts and wildfires. These weather
and climate hazards affect health both directly and indirectly, increasing the risk of
deaths, noncommunicable diseases, the emergence and spread of infectious diseases, and
health emergencies.
Climate change is also having an impact on our health workforce and infrastructure,
reducing capacity to provide universal health coverage (UHC). More fundamentally,
climate shocks and growing stresses such as changing temperature and precipitation
patterns, drought, floods and rising sea levels degrade the environmental and social
determinants of physical and mental health. All aspects of health are affected by climate
change, from clean air, water and soil to food systems and livelihoods. Further delay in
tackling climate change will increase health risks, undermine decades of improvements in
global health, and contravene our collective commitments to ensure the human right to
health for all.
Climate change impacts on health
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report
(AR6) concluded that climate risks are appearing faster and will become more severe
sooner than previously expected, and it will be harder to adapt with increased global
heating.
It further reveals that 3.6 billion people already live in areas highly susceptible to climate
change. Despite contributing minimally to global emissions, low-income countries and
small island developing states (SIDS) endure the harshest health impacts. In vulnerable
regions, the death rate from extreme weather events in the last decade was 15 times
higher than in less vulnerable ones.
Climate change is impacting health in a myriad of ways, including by leading to death
and illness from increasingly frequent extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, storms
and floods, the disruption of food systems, increases in zoonoses and food-, water- and
vector-borne diseases, and mental health issues. Furthermore, climate change is
undermining many of the social determinants for good health, such as livelihoods,
equality and access to health care and social support structures. These climate-sensitive
health risks are disproportionately felt by the most vulnerable and disadvantaged,
including women, children, ethnic minorities, poor communities, migrants or displaced
persons, older populations, and those with underlying health conditions
Although it is unequivocal that climate change affects human health, it remains
challenging to accurately estimate the scale and impact of many climate-sensitive health
risks. However, scientific advances progressively allow us to attribute an increase in
morbidity and mortality to global warming, and more accurately determine the risks and
scale of these health threats.

WHO data indicates 2 billion people lack safe drinking water and 600 million suffer from
foodborne illnesses annually, with children under 5 bearing 30% of foodborne fatalities.
Climate stressors heighten waterborne and foodborne disease risks. In 2020, 770 million
faced hunger, predominantly in Africa and Asia. Climate change affects food availability,
quality and diversity, exacerbating food and nutrition crises.

Temperature and precipitation changes enhance the spread of vector-borne diseases.

Without preventive actions, deaths from such diseases, currently over 700 000 annually,
may rise. Climate change induces both immediate mental health issues, like anxiety and
post-traumatic stress, and long-term disorders due to factors like displacement and
disrupted social cohesion.

Recent research attributes 37% of heat-related deaths to human-induced climate change.

Heat-related deaths among those over 65 have risen by 70% in two decades. In 2020, 98
million more experienced food insecurity compared to the 1981–2010 average. The
WHO conservatively projects 250 000 additional yearly deaths by the 2030s due to
climate change impacts on diseases like malaria and coastal flooding. However,
modelling challenges persist, especially around capturing risks like drought and
migration pressures.

The climate crisis threatens to undo the last 50 years of progress in development, global
health and poverty reduction, and to further widen existing health inequalities between
and within populations. It severely jeopardizes the realization of UHC in various ways,
including by compounding the existing burden of disease and by exacerbating existing
barriers to accessing health services, often at the times when they are most needed. Over
930 million people – around 12% of the world’s population – spend at least 10% of their
household budget to pay for health care. With the poorest people largely uninsured,
health shocks and stresses already currently push around 100 million people into poverty
every year, with the impacts of climate change worsening this trend.

Climate change and equity

In the short- to medium-term, the health impacts of climate change will be determined
mainly by the vulnerability of populations, their resilience to the current rate of climate
change and the extent and pace of adaptation. In the longer-term, the effects will
increasingly depend on the extent to which transformational action is taken now to reduce
emissions and avoid the breaching of dangerous temperature thresholds and potential
irreversible tipping points.

While no one is safe from these risks, the people whose health is being harmed first and
worst by the climate crisis are the people who contribute least to its causes, and who are
least able to protect themselves and their families against it: people in low-income and
disadvantaged countries and communities.

Addressing climate change's health burden underscores the equity imperative: those most
responsible for emissions should bear the highest mitigation and adaptation costs,
emphasizing health equity and vulnerable group prioritization.

Need for urgent action

To avert catastrophic health impacts and prevent millions of climate change-related
deaths, the world must limit temperature rise to 1.5°C. Past emissions have already made
a certain level of global temperature rise and other changes to the climate inevitable.
Global heating of even 1.5°C is not considered safe, however; every additional tenth of a
degree of warming will take a serious toll on people’s lives and health.

WHO response
WHO’s response to these challenges centres around 3 main objectives:

Promote actions that both reduce carbon emissions and improve health: supporting a
rapid and equitable transition to a clean energy economy; ensuring that health is central to
climate change mitigation policy; accelerating mitigation actions that bring the greatest
health gains; and mobilizing the strength of the health community to drive policy change
and build public support.
Build better, more climate-resilient and environmentally sustainable health systems:
ensuring core services, environmental sustainability and climate resilience as central
components of UHC and primary health care (PHC); supporting health systems to
leapfrog to cheaper, more reliable and cleaner solutions, while decarbonizing high-
emitting health systems; and mainstreaming climate resilience and environmental
sustainability into health service investments, including the capacity of the health
workforce.
Protect health from the wide range of impacts of climate change: assessing health
vulnerabilities and developing health plans; integrating climate risk and implementing
climate-informed surveillance and response systems for key risks, such as extreme heat
and infectious disease; supporting resilience and adaptation in health-determining sectors
such as water and food; and closing the financing gap for health adaptation and
resilience.
Leadership and Raising Awareness: WHO leads in emphasizing climate change's health
implications, aiming to centralize health in climate policies, including through the
UNFCCC. Partnering with major health agencies, health professionals and civil society,
WHO strives to embed climate change in health priorities like UHC and target carbon
neutrality by 2030.

Evidence and Monitoring: WHO, with its network of global experts, contributes global
evidence summaries, provides assistance to nations in their assessments, and monitors
progress. The emphasis is on deploying effective policies and enhancing access to
knowledge and data.

Capacity Building and Country Support: Through WHO offices, support is given to
ministries of health, focusing on collaboration across sectors, updated guidance, hands-on
training, and support for project preparation and execution as well as for securing climate
and health funding. WHO leads the Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and
Health (ATACH), bringing together a range of health and development partners, to
support countries in achieving their commitments to climate-resilient and low carbon
health systems.
GENEVA (ILO News) – A “staggering” number of workers, amounting to more than 70
per cent of the global workforce, are likely to be exposed to climate-change-related health
hazards, and existing occupational safety and health (OSH) protections are struggling to
keep up with the resulting risks, according to a new report by the International Labour
Organization (ILO).

The report, Ensuring safety and health at work in a changing climate, says that climate
change is already having a serious impact on the safety and health of workers in all
regions of the world. The ILO estimates that more than 2.4 billion workers (out of a
global workforce of 3.4 billion) are likely to be exposed to excessive heat at some point
during their work, according to the most recent figures available (2020). When calculated
as a share of the global workforce, the proportion has increased from 65.5 per cent to
70.9 per cent since 2000.

In addition, the report estimates that 18,970 lives and 2.09 million disability-adjusted life
years are lost annually due to the 22.87 million occupational injuries, which are
attributable to excessive heat. This is not to mention the 26.2 million people worldwide
living with chronic kidney disease linked to workplace heat stress (2020 figures).
However, the impact of climate change on workers goes well beyond exposure to
excessive heat, the report says, creating a “cocktail of hazards”, which result in a range of
dangerous health conditions.

The report notes that numerous health conditions in workers have been linked to climate
change, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, respiratory illnesses, kidney
dysfunction and mental health conditions. The impact includes:

1.6 billion workers exposed to UV radiation, with more than 18,960 work-related deaths
annually from nonmelanoma skin cancer.
1.6 billion likely to be exposed to workplace air pollution, resulting in up to 860,000
work-related deaths among outdoor workers annually.
Over 870 million workers in agriculture, likely to be exposed to pesticides, with more
than 300,000 deaths attributed to pesticide poisoning annually.
15,000 work-related deaths every year due to exposure to parasitic and vector-borne
diseases.
“It’s clear that climate change is already creating significant additional health hazards for
workers,” said Manal Azzi, OSH Team Lead at the ILO. “It is essential that we heed these
warnings. Occupational safety and health considerations must be become part of our
climate change responses – both policies and actions. Working in safe and healthy
environments is recognized as one of the ILO’s fundamental principles and rights at
work. We must deliver on that commitment in relation to climate change, just as in every
other aspect of work.”

The report also explores current country responses, including revising or creating new
legislation, regulations and guidance, and improving climate mitigation strategies – such
as energy efficiency measures – in working environments.
Climate change is our planet’s greatest existential threat. If we don’t limit greenhouse gas
emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, the consequences of rising global temperatures
include massive crop and fishery collapse, the disappearance of hundreds of thousands of
species, and entire communities becoming uninhabitable. While these outcomes may still
be avoidable, climate change is already causing suffering and death. From raging
wildfires and supercharged storms, its compounding effects can be felt today, outside our
own windows.

Understanding these impacts can help us prepare for what’s here, what’s avoidable, and
what’s yet to come, and to better prepare and protect all communities. Even though
everyone is or will be affected by climate change, those living in the world’s poorest
countries—which have contributed least to the problem—are the most climate-
vulnerable. They have the fewest financial resources to respond to crises or adapt, and
they’re closely dependent on a healthy, thriving natural world for food and income.
Similarly, in the United States, it is most often low-income communities and
communities of color that are on the frontlines of climate impacts. And because climate
change and rising inequality are interconnected crises, decision makers must take action
to combat both—and all of us must fight for climate justice. Here’s what you need to
know about what we’re up against.

Effects of climate change on weather

Effects of climate change on the environment
Effects of climate change on agriculture
Effects of climate change on animals
Effects of climate change on humans
Future effects of climate change
Effects of climate change on weather
As global temperatures climb, widespread shifts in weather systems occur, making events
like droughts, hurricanes, and floods more intense and unpredictable. Extreme weather
events that may have hit just once in our grandparents’ lifetimes are becoming more
common in ours. However, not every place will experience the same effects: Climate
change may cause severe drought in one region while making floods more likely in
another.

Already, the planet has warmed 1.1 degrees Celsius (1.9 degrees Fahrenheit) since the
preindustrial era began 250 years ago, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC). And scientists warn it could reach a worst-case scenario of 4
degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100 if we fail to tackle the causes of climate
change—namely, the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and gas).
Higher average temperatures
This change in global average temperature—seemingly small but consequential and
climbing—means that, each summer, we are likely to experience increasingly sweltering
heat waves. Even local news meteorologists are starting to connect strings of record-
breaking days to new long-term trends, which are especially problematic in regions
where infrastructure and housing have not been built with intensifying heat in mind. And
heat waves aren’t just uncomfortable—they’re the leading cause of weather-related
fatalities in the United States.
Longer-lasting droughts
Hotter temperatures increase the rate at which water evaporates from the air, leading to
more severe and pervasive droughts. Already, climate change has pushed the American
West into a severe “megadrought”—the driest 22-year stretch recorded in at least 1,200
years—shrinking drinking water supplies, withering crops, and making forests more
susceptible to insect infestations. Drought can also create a positive feedback loop in
which drier soil and less plant cover cause even faster evaporation.
More intense wildfires
This drier, hotter climate also creates conditions that fuel more vicious wildfire seasons—
with fires that spread faster and burn longer—putting millions of additional lives and
homes at risk. The number of large wildfires doubled between 1984 and 2015 in the
western United States. And in California alone, the annual area burned by
wildfires increased 500 percent between 1972 and 2018.

Evacuation after Hurricane Harvey in Houston, August 28, 2017

Credit:
David J. Phillip/AP Photo
Stronger storms
Warmer air also holds more moisture, making tropical cyclones wetter, stronger, and
more capable of rapidly intensifying. In the latest report from the IPCC, scientists found
that daily rainfall during extreme precipitation events would increase by about 7 percent
for each degree Celsius of global warming, increasing the dangers of flooding. The
frequency of severe Category 4 and 5 hurricanes is also expected to increase. In 2017,
Hurricane Harvey, a devastating Category 4 storm, dumped a record 275 trillion pounds
of rain and resulted in dozens of deaths in the Houston area.
Effects of climate change on the environment
From the poles to the tropics, climate change is disrupting ecosystems. Even a seemingly
slight shift in temperature can cause dramatic changes that ripple through food webs and
the environment.

The lake at Jökulsárlón, a glacial lagoon in Iceland, which has grown because of
continued glacial melting
Credit:
Eskinder Debebe/UN Photo
Melting sea ice
The effects of climate change are most apparent in the world’s coldest regions—the
poles. The Arctic is heating up twice as fast as anywhere else on earth, leading to the
rapid melting of glaciers and polar ice sheets, where a massive amount of water is stored.
As sea ice melts, darker ocean waters that absorb more sunlight become exposed,
creating a positive feedback loop that speeds up the melting process. In just 15 years, the
Arctic could be entirely ice-free in the summer.
Sea level rise
Scientists predict that melting sea ice and glaciers, as well as the fact that warmer water
expands in volume, could cause sea levels to rise as much as 6.6 feet by the end of the
century, should we fail to curb emissions. The extent (and pace) of this change would
devastate low-lying regions, including island nations and densely populated coastal cities
like New York City and Mumbai.
But sea level rise at far lower levels is still costly, dangerous, and disruptive. According
to the 2022 Sea Level Rise Technical Report from the National Ocean Service, the United
States will see a foot of sea level rise by 2050, which will regularly damage
infrastructure, like roads, sewage treatment plants, and even power plants. Beaches that
families have grown up visiting may be gone by the end of the century. Sea level rise also
harms the environment, as encroaching seawater can both erode coastal ecosystems and
invade freshwater inland aquifers, which we rely on for agriculture and drinking water.
Saltwater incursion is already reshaping life in nations like Bangladesh, where one-
quarter of the lands lie less than 7 feet above sea level.
A waterlogged road, caused by rainstorm and upstream flood discharge, in the Shaoguan,
Guangdong Province of China, June 21, 2022
Credit:
Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Flooding
In addition to coastal flooding caused by sea level rise, climate change influences the
factors that result in inland and urban flooding: snowmelt and heavy rain. As global
warming continues to both exacerbate sea level rise and extreme weather, our nation’s
floodplains are expected to grow by approximately 45 percent by 2100. In 2022, deadly
flooding in Pakistan—which inundated as much as a third of the country—resulted from
torrential rains mixed with melting glaciers and snow.
Warmer ocean waters and marine heat waves
Oceans are taking the brunt of our climate crisis. Covering more than 70 percent of the
planet’s surface, oceans absorb 93 percent of all the heat that’s trapped by greenhouse
gases and up to 30 percent of all the carbon dioxide emitted from burning fossil fuels.
Temperature-sensitive fish and other marine life are already changing migration patterns
toward cooler and deeper waters to survive, sending food webs and important
commercial fisheries into disarray. And the frequency of marine heat waves has increased
by more than a third. These spikes have led to mass die-offs of plankton and marine
mammals.
To make matters worse, the elevated absorption of carbon dioxide by the ocean leads to
its gradual acidification, which alters the fundamental chemical makeup of the water and
threatens marine life that has evolved to live in a narrow pH band. Animals like corals,
oysters, and mussels will likely feel these effects first, as acidification disrupts the
calcification process required to build their shells.
Ecosystem stressors
Land-based ecosystems—from old-growth forests to savannahs to tropical rainforests—
are faring no better. Climate change is likely to increase outbreaks of pests, invasive
species, and pathogen infections in forests. It’s changing the kinds of vegetation that can
thrive in a given region and disrupting the life cycles of wildlife, all of which is changing
the composition of ecosystems and making them less resilient to stressors. While
ecosystems have the capacity to adapt, many are reaching the hard limits of that natural
capacity. More repercussions will follow as temperatures rise.
Climate change appears to be triggering a series of cascading ecological changes that we
can neither fully predict nor, once they have enough momentum, fully stop. This
ecosystem destabilization may be most apparent when it comes to keystone species that
have an outsize- role in holding up an ecosystem’s structure.
Coffee plants destroyed by frost due to extremely low temperatures near Caconde in the
São Paulo state of Brazil, August 25, 2021
Credit:
Jonne Roriz/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Effects of climate change on agriculture
Less predictable growing seasons
In a warming world, farming crops is more unpredictable—and livestock, which are
sensitive to extreme weather, become harder to raise. Climate change shifts precipitation
patterns, causing unpredictable floods and longer-lasting droughts. More frequent and
severe hurricanes can devastate an entire season’s worth of crops. Meanwhile, the
dynamics of pests, pathogens, and invasive species—all of which are costly for farmers
to manage—are also expected to become harder to predict. This is bad news, given that
most of the world’s farms are small and family-run. One bad drought or flood could
decimate an entire season’s crop or herd. For example, in June 2022, a triple-digit heat
wave in Kansas wiped out thousands of cows. While the regenerative agriculture
movement is empowering rural communities to make their lands more resilient to climate
change, unfortunately, not all communities can equitably access the support services that
can help them embrace these more sustainable farming tactics.
Reduced soil health
Healthy soil has good moisture and mineral content and is teeming with bugs, bacteria,
fungi, and microbes that in turn contribute to healthy crops. But climate change,
particularly extreme heat and changes in precipitation, can degrade soil quality. These
impacts are exacerbated in areas where industrial, chemical-dependent monoculture
farming has made soil and crops less able to withstand environmental changes.
Food shortages
Ultimately, impacts to our agricultural systems pose a direct threat to the global food
supply. And food shortages and price hikes driven by climate change will not affect
everyone equally: Wealthier people will continue to have more options for accessing
food, while potentially billions of others will be plummeted into food insecurity—adding
to the billions that already have moderate or severe difficulty getting enough to eat.

The poison dart frog’s survival is currently threatened by habitat loss and climate change.
Credit:
Chris Mattison/Minden Pictures
Effects of climate change on animals
It’s about far more than just the polar bears: Half of all animal species in the world’s
most biodiverse places, like the Amazon rainforest and the Galapagos Islands, are at risk
of extinction from climate change. And climate change is threatening species that are
already suffering from the biodiversity crisis, which is driven primarily by changes in
land and ocean use (like converting wild places to farmland) and direct exploitation of
species (like overfishing and wildlife trade). With species already in rough shape—more
than 500,000 species have insufficient habitat for long-term survival—unchecked climate
change is poised to push millions over the edge.
Climate change rapidly and fundamentally alters (or in some cases, destroys) the habitat
that wildlife have incrementally adapted to over millennia. This is especially harmful for
species’ habitats that are currently under threat from other causes. Ice-dependent
mammals like walruses and penguins, for example, won’t fare well as ice sheets shrink.
Rapid shifts in ocean temperatures stress the algae that nourishes coral reefs, causing
reefs to starve—an increasingly common phenomenon known as coral bleaching.
Disappearing wetlands in the Midwest’s Prairie Pothole Region means the loss of
watering holes and breeding grounds for millions of migratory birds. (Many species are
now struggling to survive, as more than 85 percent of wetlands have been lost since
1700). And sea level rise will inundate or erode away many coastal habitats, where
hundreds of species of birds, invertebrates, and other marine species live.
Many species’ behaviors—mating, feeding, migration—are closely tied to subtle seasonal
shifts, as in temperature, precipitation level, and foliage. In some cases, changes to the
environment are happening quicker than species are able to adapt. When the types and
quantity of plant life change across a region, or when certain species bloom or hatch
earlier or later than in the past, it impacts food and water supplies and reverberates up
food chains.
Wildfire smoke–filled air in Multnomah County, Oregon, September 16, 2020
Credit:
Motoya Nakamura/Multnomah County Communications, CC BY NC-ND 4.0
Effects of climate change on humans
Ultimately, the way climate change impacts weather, the environment, animals, and
agriculture affects humanity as well. But there’s more. Around the world, our ways of life
—from how we get our food to the industries around which our economies are based—
have all developed in the context of relatively stable climates. As global warming shakes
this foundation, it promises to alter the very fabric of society. At worst, this could lead to
widespread famine, disease, war, displacement, injury, and death. For many around the
world, this grim forecast is already their reality. In this way, climate change poses an
existential threat to all human life.
Human health
Climate change worsens air quality. It increases exposure to hazardous wildfire smoke
and ozone smog triggered by warmer conditions, both of which harm our health,
particularly for those with pre-existing illnesses like asthma or heart disease.
Insect-borne diseases like malaria and Zika become more prevalent in a warming world
as their carriers are able to exist in more regions or thrive for longer seasons. In the past
30 years, the incidence of Lyme disease from ticks has nearly doubled in the United
States, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Thousands of
people face injury, illness, and death every year from more frequent or more intense
extreme weather events. At a 2-degree Celsius rise in global average temperature, an
estimated one billion people will face heat stress risk. In the summer of 2022
alone, thousands died in record-shattering heat waves across Europe. Weeks later, dozens
were killed by record-breaking urban flooding in the United States and South Korea—
and more than 1,500 people perished in the flooding in Pakistan, where resulting stagnant
water and unsanitary conditions threaten even more.
The effects of climate change—and the looming threat of what’s yet to come—take a
significant toll on mental health too. One 2021 study on climate anxiety, published in the
journal Nature, surveyed 10,000 young people from 10 different countries. Forty-five
percent of respondents said that their feelings about climate change, varying from anxiety
to powerlessness to anger, impacted their daily lives.
A patient with dengue fever, a mosquito-borne disease, in Karachi, Pakistan, where the
spread of diseases worsened due to flooding, September 2022
Credit:
Fareed Khan/AP Photo
Worsening inequity
The climate crisis exacerbates existing inequities. Though wealthy nations, such as the
United States, have emitted the lion’s share of historical greenhouse gas emissions, it’s
developing countries that may lack the resources to adapt and will now bear the brunt of
the climate crisis. In some cases, low-lying island nations—like many in the Pacific—
may cease to exist before developed economies make meaningful reductions to their
carbon emissions.
Even within wealthier nations, disparities will continue to grow between those rich
enough to shield themselves from the realities of climate change and those who cannot.
Those with ample resources will not be displaced from their homes by wars over food or
water—at least not right away. They will have homes with cool air during heat waves and
be able to easily evacuate when a hurricane is headed their way. They will be able to buy
increasingly expensive food and access treatment for respiratory illness caused by
wildfire smoke. Billions of others can’t—and are paying the highest price for climate
pollution they did not produce.
Hurricane Katrina, for example, displaced more than one million people around the Gulf
Coast. But in New Orleans, where redlining practices promoted racial and economic
segregation, the city’s more affluent areas tended to be located on higher ground—and
those residents were able to return and rebuild much faster than others.
Displacement
Climate change will drive displacement due to impacts like food and water scarcities, sea
level rise, and economic instability. It’s already happening. The United Nations Global
Compact on Refugees recognizes that “climate, environmental degradation and disasters
increasingly interact with the drivers of refugee movements.” Again, communities with
the fewest resources—including those facing political instability and poverty—will feel
the effects first and most devastatingly.