Climate change will have direct and indirect impacts on health depending on the vulnerability, resilience, and adaptive capacity of local societies, populations, and ecosystems. In many areas, in particular in low-income countries, climate change will exacerbate existing problems, such as climate-related disasters, food security, water availability, and infectious disease transmission. Women and children are especially vulnerable if such conditions worsen. In addition, climate change will create new challenges, such as severe heat related health effects and the survival of infectious disease vectors in new areas. Environmental refugees and migration are expected to increase during this century from disappearing land in low-laying coastal areas and islands, from disaster-prone locations, and due to negative impacts of climate change on livelihoods. This will, in turn, create new public health challenges in new locations.
For the latest Report on Impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC: Click here
SIGHT has since summer 2017 an on-going project on health and climate change in collaboration with the Swedish partner of the Lancet Countdown initiative at Umeå University. “The Lancet Countdown: Tracking Progress on Health and Climate Change is an international research collaboration, dedicated to tracking the world’s response to climate change, and the health benefits that emerge from this transition. Reporting annually until 2030 in The Lancet journal it will follow a series of indicators, demonstrating that this transition is possible, that it has already begun, but that more work is needed.” SIGHT’s engagement involves collaborations in choosing indicators for Sweden, the writing of annual policy reports, and hosting the launch event which was held on 21 November 2017.
