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Inaction on Climate Change Projected to Reduce European Life Expectancy

Population Research and Policy Review volume 40, pages 629–638 (2021)Cite this article

Abstract

Climate change-related excess mortality estimates clearly demonstrate a dramatic impact on public health and human mortality. However, life expectancy at birth is more easily communicated and understood by the public. By properly situating climate change mortality within the contexts of life expectancy, we better represent the cost of climate change on longevity. In this paper, we convert excess mortality estimates due to increases in extreme weather from climate change (heat waves, cold waves, droughts, wildfires, river and coastal floods, and windstorms) into potential reductions in life expectancy at birth in thirty-one European countries. We project climate change extremes to reduce life expectancy at birth by 0.24 years for the average European country with differences in excess of 1.0 years in some countries by 2100. We only estimate the impact of mortality directly related to climate extremes, making our estimates conservative. Thus, the cost of inaction on climate change could approach, and likely to exceed, one year of life in some European countries.

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Notes

  1. “The fatality data from the two databases considered is likely to not include increased deaths from common causes that were observed to rise at the population level but for which individual deaths could not be attributed to the event. For example,... increased risk of cardiovascular and respiratory deaths… may be severely under-reported in the EMDAT and NatCatSERVICE.” (see (Forzieri et al., 2017), pp. 9, Supplementary Materials).

  2. GBD data can be retrieved here: http://ghdx.healthdata.org/gbd-results-tool?params=gbd-api-2017-permalink/b235b96d60b3b5f06f3e080974c415f3.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Florida State University, 113 Collegiate Way, Bellamy Building, Tallahassee, FL, 30602, USA

    Mathew E. Hauer

  2. Center for Demography and Population Health, Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA

    Mathew E. Hauer

  3. Human Development and Family Studies, Pennsylvania State University, State College, USA

    Alexis R. Santos-Lozada

  4. Population Research Institute, Pennsylvania State University, State College, USA

    Alexis R. Santos-Lozada

Authors
  1. Mathew E. Hauer
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  2. Alexis R. Santos-Lozada
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Correspondence to Mathew E. Hauer.

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Hauer, M.E., Santos-Lozada, A.R. Inaction on Climate Change Projected to Reduce European Life Expectancy. Popul Res Policy Rev 40, 629–638 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-020-09584-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-020-09584-w

Keywords

  • Climate change
  • Life expectancy
  • Mortality
  • Europe