9/8/2018 Climate Change Impacts Human Health | UNFCCC

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News (/news) Climate Change Impacts Human Health

REPORT / 12 APR, 2017

Climate Change Impacts Human Health

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A new UN report says that health risks related to climate change are on the rise worldwide. At
the same time, coordinated international responses can help prevent some of the worst impacts
of climate change on health.

Youssef Nassef, Director of the Adaptation Programme of the UNFCCC secretariat, says: “the
report clearly highlights the need for the UN and partners to continuously strengthen their
actions to support governments to build climate resilience, including measures to protect
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human health.”

The report will be presented to governments during the next round of climate change
negotiations to be held in
Bonn from 8-18 May 2017 (http://unfccc.int/meetings/bonn_may_2017/meeting/10076.php).

It was prepared in collaboration with countries, the World Health Organization and other
relevant expert organizations, under the Nairobi work programme − UN Knowledge-for-Action
Climate Resilience Network. Below follows an overview of the report’s main ndings.

Climate change is expected to exacerbate health problems that

already pose a major burden to vulnerable populations

The report shares at least five major insights:

1. Certain groups have higher susceptibility to climate-sensitive health impacts owing to
their age (children and elderly), gender (particularly pregnant women), social marginalization
(associated in some areas with indigenous populations, poverty or migration status), or other
health conditions like HIV. The socioeconomic costs of health problems caused by climate
change are considerable.

2. Many infectious diseases, including water-borne ones, are highly sensitive to climate
conditions.  Figure 1 illustrates the correlation between temperature and diarrhea. A main
concern in both developed and developing countries was the increase in and increased
geographical spread of diarrhoeal diseases, the report found.

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Sensitivity of diarrhoeal disease to meteorological conditions. Source: Checkley W et al. 2000. E ects
of El Niño and ambient temperature on hospital admissions for diarrhoeal diseases in Peruvian
children. Lancet. 355: pp.442–450. Notes: (1) Section A of the gure shows daily admissions for severe
diarrhoea at the main paediatric clinic in Lima; (2) Section B of the gure shows daily variations in
temperature for Lima over the same period.

3. Climate change lengthens the transmission season and expands the geographical range of
many diseases like malaria and dengue. For example, the conditions for dengue transmission
are likely to expand signi cantly across the globe (see gure 2 below)

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Changing patterns of infectious disease: dengue transmission. Source: Based on data from Hales S, de
Wet N, Maindonald J and Woodward A. 2002. Potential e ect of population and climate changes on
global distribution of dengue fever: an empirical model. Lancet. 360: pp.830–834. Notes: (1) Section
(a) shows dengue fever transmission in 1990; (2) Section (b) shows projected expanded distribution of
dengue fever in the warmer, wetter and more humid conditions expected in the 2080s, assuming no
change in non-climatic determinants of dengue distribution.

4. Climate change will bring new and emerging health issues, including heatwaves and other
extreme events. Heat stress can make working conditions unbearable and increase the risk of
cardiovascular, respiratory and renal diseases. Additionally, it is estimated that 22.5 million
people are displaced annually by climate or weather-related disasters, and these gures are
expected to increase in the future. Climate-induced human mobility has a socioeconomic cost
and can a ect mental and physical health.

5. Malnutrition and undernutrition were highlighted as a concern for a number of developing

countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, which discussed the impacts of climate change on
food security, particularly in relation to oods and drought.

While these risks and challenges are big, there are also many
solutions

The report highlights inspiring examples of

adaptation solutions for health worldwide:
The Climate Adaptation Management and Innovation Initiative of the Word Food Programme
develops climate-induced food insecurity analyses and practices to inform programming and
decision-making. The initiative focuses on16 countries across Asia, the Middle East, and
Eastern, Central and Northern Africa.
In France, the Tiger Mosquito Surveillance Network monitors the tiger mosquito’s
movements.
The Smart Health Facilities Initiative and Smart Hospitals Toolkit is being implemented
through the Pan American Health Organization in the Caribbean with the aim of supporting
the governments of the selected countries to assess and prioritize vulnerability reduction
investments in their health facilities.
Some countries integrate health into their national adaptation plans (NAPs) and
programmes. For example, Macedonia and six additional countries are part of an initiative of
WHO and the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building
and Nuclear Safety that brings health into adaptation plans.

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There are also a number of training and awareness-raising activities, including the Self-
Learning Course on Climate Change and Health, developed by Mexico’s National Institute of
Public Health in line with the joint Pan American Health Organization/WHO Strategy and
Plan for Action on Climate Change. The training aims at raising awareness and improving
knowledge on the health e ects of climate change among the general public and other
sectors.

To help scale up adaptation action in countries in the area of human health, various solutions
have been proposed in the report that require actions by the UN and partners. As a part of the
solution, the Nairobi work programme has developed the 5 step process below:

Five-step process on health and adaptation under the Nairobi work programme

The synthesis paper is available

here (http://unfccc.int/documentation/documents/advanced_search/items/6911.php?
priref=600009444)
.

For more information, contact the Nairobi work programme team:

nwp@unfccc.int (mailto:nwp@unfccc.int)

The Nairobi work programme: UN Knowledge-for-Action C

The Nairobi work programme on impacts, vulnerability and adaptation to climate change (NWP

Photo credit: A close view of a cholera infected child resting on the oor of the Doin medical centre
near Saint Marc (Haiti). Water borne diseases are highly sensitive to climate conditions. 
UN Photo/UNICEF/Marco Dormino (http://www.unmultimedia.org/photo/detail.jsp?
app=1&lang=en&id=465/465238&key=14&query=cholera&lang=en&sf=)
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