Responding to Climate Change: Sector Script for Health

Abstract:

Climate change may bring about some specific health risks, but most of its effects will probably materialize in the form of exacerbation of existing problems, as a result of interaction with other global, regional and local trends and a weakening of the life-support systems that underpin public health. One of the first ways in which climate change is likely to negatively impact human health is through lower productivity in food production sectors, with negative impacts on food security; the prevalence of malnutrition may increase, contributing to a reduction in people's immune defenses and making them more susceptible to disease and less resilient to environmental stresses. Other significant potential impacts are associated with likely changes in the seasonality and range of disease vectors, the increased frequency and severity of extreme weather events, the reduced availability of freshwater, the degradation of water quality and impacts on food safety.