Climate Change and Global Health

Abstract

Anthropogenic climate change threatens to diminish global health gains achieved over the past century. This chapter describes the myriad of ways environmental, economic and societal determinants of health are impacted if greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated. It highlights that since collective resources such as water, air and food are impacted, the negative health consequences of climate change are felt universally. This indicates that the climate crisis is a health crisis. A global policy review of the Paris Agreement, Sustainable Development Goals and the Sendai Framework indicate, however, that there remains limited development and integration of climate-resilient health systems in the climate action discourse. Given the unprecedented and potentially irreversible impacts to all life on the planet, urgent actions and investments are needed from the world’s leaders to build global health resilience, by developing climate-resilient health systems that critically safeguard both population and planetary health.