My account

Health

There is a growing understanding of how climate change impacts human health. These health arguments are an increasingly powerful perspective on the importance of climate risk mitigation and adaptation.

For actuaries whose work entails projections of human health, morbidity, and mortality, the list of relevant climate change impacts is long and complex. Uncertainties in projections considering health are also magnified by future responses to climate change, at both an individual behaviour level and societal level. These may mitigate or exacerbate primary climate change drivers. While not an exhaustive list, some important issues impacting human health are:

1. Air quality changes

  1. Associated with fossil fuel burning
  2. Wildfire smoke

2. Temperature extremes

  1. Heatwave and cold spells
  2. Increases in intensity and frequency
  3. Changing geographical patterns
  4. Changing patterns in endemic infectious disease

3. New epidemics/pandemics

  1. New pathogens, zoonoses, and disease vectors associated with changing land use and precipitation patterns
  2. Increases in frequency and severity
  3. Health system stability and continuity during crises

4. Deterioration in mental health

  1. Eco-anxiety
  2. PTSD after disaster events

5. Water and food security

  1. Drought
  2. Flooding and water-borne diseases
  3. Changing agricultural production patterns and capacity
  4. Political instability and conflict risk

6. The response to climate change risk

  1. The extent and pace of greenhouse gas emission reduction
  2. Health system adaptation and disaster readiness
  3. Public efforts to mitigate preventable health impacts
  4. Climate change-induced migration and demographic shifts
  5. Adoption of low-carbon lifestyles with secondary health impacts
  6. Changing consumer buying behaviour towards private health protection

Since 2016, the Lancet Countdown: Tracking Progress on Health and Climate Change has been monitoring how climate change threatens public health, and how the response to it potentially brings immense benefits for human health. It is a collaboration of over 120 leading and diverse experts, who publish an annual report ahead of the UN climate change negotiations.

In 2021, prior to COP26 in Glasgow, the WHO published a COP26 Special Report on Climate Change and Health. It proposes 10 recommendations from the global health community to governments and policymakers, calling on them to act with urgency on the current climate and health crises.

In 2021, the journal Nature Climate Change published a study spanning nearly three decades of heat deaths across 732 cities. It concludes that 37% of warm-season heat-related deaths can be attributed to human-caused climate change. Exposure to excessive heat is known to exacerbate cardiovascular conditions, while dehydration and alterations in renal system functioning lead to chronic kidney disease. The brain, liver, and gut are also affected by excessive heat.

In 2021, the Global Climate and Health Alliance published The Limits of Livability – The emerging threat of smoke impacts on health from forest fires and climate change.

In 2014, 2017, and 2021, the American Psychological Association and ecoAmerica have published updated reports: Mental Health and Our Changing Climate: Impacts, Implications, and Guidance to increase awareness about these challenges and address them.