Key facts
- Climate change harms people’s health, including mental health, leading to death and illness from extreme weather, food system disruptions and the spread of disease.
- An estimated 3.6 billion people – 44% of the world’s population – live in areas highly susceptible to climate change.
- Unless urgent action is taken, climate change will add 5 million people to the global death toll from undernutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress from 2030 to 2050.
- Many countries and areas in the Western Pacific Region are at high risk from climate change and climate related disasters.
- Health impacts vary based on the vulnerability and resilience of communities. As health care facilities are the primary point of care, building resilience in facilities must be a priority to address vulnerability to the health impacts of climate change.
Climate change affects health in many ways, including by leading to death and illness from increasingly frequent extreme weather events such as heat, storms and floods, the disruption of food systems, and rise in diseases spread by animals, insects, food and water. Climate change also impacts mental health.
Climate change undermines social determinants of good health, such as livelihoods, equality, and access to health care and social support structures. Groups with risks of vulnerability and disadvantages, such as women, children, minorities, poor people, migrants, older people and those with pre-existing conditions are most affected by climate change.
