Climate crisis as a global risk multiplier of human welfare

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.
The links between climate, poverty and health are clear, asserts the World Health Organization (WHO), which has been working on climate change and health for over 25 years – advocating, collating evidence, and providing comprehensive support to countries in dealing with health effects of climate change.
Studies done by the World Bank have shown that the climate crisis is a health-risk multiplier. Extreme weather events are having a devastating health impact globally. By 2030, climate’s negative health effects could drive at least 44 million people into extreme poverty.
Climate change has been impacting human health at an accelerated pace over the past decade through increases in heat-related illnesses, waterborne and vector-borne diseases, including outbreaks, and malnutrition from reduced crop productivity.
These effects will worsen over time, with changes not only in the number of diseases and deaths from climate-sensitive health risks but also in the geographical range. In addition to impacting health outcomes, climate change is projected to adversely impact health systems.
As a result of poverty, income inequality, and weak healthcare systems, low- and middle-income countries (LIMCs) face disproportionate increases in morbidity, as well as increasing losses and damages to health facilities.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have called for urgent action and over 200 health journals have recently called on the UN, political leaders and health professionals to treat the ongoing climate and nature crises as one global health emergency.
Major effects
Changing climate conditions are altering burdens of disease, by increasing heat-related illnesses and deaths, shifting the patterns of infectious disease transmission, making deadly disease outbreaks and pandemics more likely, worsening maternal and child health outcomes, and intensifying health impacts from extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, wildfires and windstorms.
What are the 10 major effects of climate change? The first one is hotter temperatures. As greenhouse concentrations rise, so does the global surface temperature. Other effects are more severe storms, increased drought, a warming, rising ocean, and loss of species.
The rest are food shortages, more health risks, poverty and displacement. Climate change increases the risk of illnesses through rising temperature, more frequent heavy rains and runoff, and the effects of storms. Health impacts may include gastrointestinal illnesses like diarrhoea, effects on the body’s nervous and respiratory systems, or liver and kidney disease.
Climate change is now a critical global health emergency. As the global climate crisis escalates, its devastating impacts on human health and well-being will also accelerate.
No one anywhere around the globe is beyond its reach. Among the millions of people affected, women, children, the elderly, communities of marginalised identity, displaced persons, people with pre-existing conditions, and those living in poverty – are among the most vulnerable.
Experts say changing climate conditions also exerts significant strains on health systems, simultaneously increasing demand for health services while impairing the system’s ability to respond. Furthermore, the climate crisis is rapidly deteriorating access to basic human needs such as food security, safe drinking water and sanitation, and clean air.
The result, according to new World Bank data, is that a changing climate could lead to excess health costs, and low- and middle-income countries of at least US$21 trillion by 2050, equivalent to approximately 1.3 per cent of their projected GDP. Unabated climate change is also expected to make the global goal of poverty reduction even more challenging to reach.
A World Bank study, ‘Revised Estimates of the Impact of Climate Change on Extreme Poverty by 2030”, estimates that climate change may push an additional 132 million people, more than half of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, into extreme poverty by 2030, with 44 million of these driven by health impacts.
Despite the scale of this crisis, evidence quantifying the impact of climate change on health remains limited. The underlying physiological factors linking climate change and the incidence of vector-borne and waterborne diseases have been discussed by numerous experts.
However, the extent of the risk of climate change on health remains poorly quantified. Only a limited number of papers have aimed to transform this knowledge into quantified assessments of the potential impacts of climate change on specific health risks.
Given the scarcity of public resources, future policy responses on their allocations require going beyond understanding the underlying nature of climate change and health links to quantify the extent of the linkages in terms of future incidences, mortality and economic costs.
This lack of comprehensive quantification may partially explain WHO’s observation that health-specific climate actions represent only 6 per cent of total adaptation funding. UNEP estimates that LMICs require at least US$11 billion in funding per year this decade to adapt to climate and health impacts and increase the resilience of health systems.
Continuity coalition
The UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan was a milestone in the global effort to integrate health and climate action, building on commitments made at previous COPs and pushing forward the agenda to protect health in the face of climate change.
WHO, hosting leaders to underscoring the need for continuity and synergy in climate-health initiatives, critically emphasised translating past pledges into action, and officially established the Baku COP Presidencies Continuity Coalition for Climate and Health.
“This initiative unites the visionary leadership of five COP presidencies that span this critical time for action, underscoring a commitment to elevate health within the climate agenda,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, noting that the coalition represents a collective will to prioritise climate health now and for the future.
Led by COP presidencies of Azerbaijan, Brazil, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the WHO, it aims to provide a long-standing framework to drive impactful health outcomes, reinforcing sustained action and momentum on critical health priorities before COP30 in Belem, Brazil.
Climate-Health-Financing was operationalised to engage and amplify partnerships at the national level., ensuring greater resilience in health systems globally.
Towns and cities were recognised as key places to take serious climate action and reduce global emissions. Over 55 per cent of the global population live in urban areas, projected to increase to almost 70 percent by 2050.
Currently cities and urban areas are responsible for over 70 per cent of global carbon emissions from energy use, making cities key to addressing climate change. Reimagining the way cities and towns are built would reduce emissions, improve air quality, and improve physical and mental health in cities and beyond.
“Health doesn’t start at hospitals – green spaces, access to better public transport and resilient urban design can save lives,” said WHO’s Director of Environment, Climate Change and Health, Dr Maria Neira.
According to her, clean air, exercise and access to nature can greatly improve physical and mental health. We must therefore, she adds, take climate action in the cities and urban regions where we live to prevent disease, save lives and mitigate change globally.
The Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health (ATACH) of 92 countries and over 70 partners are focusing on the nexus of climate change, climate resilient health systems, low carbon, sustainable health systems, climate-health-financing, gender and equality in climate and health, and the health co-benefits of climate action.