I have worked in the environmental sector since graduating from university in 2011. In 2016, I transitioned over into health and climate change, bringing my expertise on climate change to health professionals. With climate records being continually broken, climate-related disasters on the rise, and limited action being taken to meaningfully reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, the need to understand the role of health in climate change discussions has never been more critical.
No one is immune to the health impacts of climate change
Every impact of climate change will affect human health to some degree and no one - no matter where in the world they live - is immune. Yet capturing the health impacts of climate change can be very complicated. Direct health impacts are simpler to identify: for example, death and injury following a storm; heat stroke during a heatwave; or spread of infectious diseases as vectors’ ranges alter in a warming world. However, the indirect health impacts of climate change are much harder to capture and understand. Indeed, there can be seemingly endless trickle-down effects of climate change, which can affect human health and wellbeing to greater or lesser degrees all around the world. Just one example - forced migration. While forced migration in itself can be a direct impact of climate change (for example, from sea level rise), the consequences of this forced migration are numerous and complex, from post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety to economic insecurity and low access to health care. These in turn can have further trickle-down effects for health and wellbeing. Capturing all of these nuances is an almighty challenge, but one that needs to be met. Only by understanding the full scale of the direct and indirect health impacts of climate change can we incentivise action and also put in place measures to increase resilience to these impacts.
Health systems are not prepared for climate change
Essential to reducing the health impacts of climate change are robust and well-functioning healthcare systems. To be resilient to climate change, a health system must have early-warning systems, disaster-response systems, disease-specific responses, and nutrition-focussed responses in place. The ability of health systems to do this will be significantly undermined — or indeed made impossible — if they are unable to deliver basic healthcare; use meteorological information to project climate-related health risks; or continue functioning if hit by a natural disaster. Many healthcare systems are not able to meet these criteria, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, which are often the most vulnerable to climate change. The 2019 WHO Health and Climate Change Survey Report tracks global progress of actions by national governments to address health and climate risks. It found that only half of countries (50 out of 101 surveyed) have a national health and climate change strategy or plan. Furthermore, early-warning systems and health sector response plans were not in place for the majority of climate related disasters. Specifically, for flooding 60 out of 99 countries had an early-warning systems and health sector response plan in place; for storms this was 50 out of 90 countries; for heatwaves it was 42 out of 98 countries; for drought it was 38 out of 97 countries; and finally for air quality it was 31 out of 98 countries.
Climate change is a human rights issue
Under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) health is a human right for all. The health impacts of climate change are in direct violation of this human right, in governments continuing to allow unmitigated climate change, which is already having, and will have increasingly severe and widespread, health impacts. Thus, the health impacts of climate change make it a human rights issue. The formal global recognition of climate change as a human rights violation is an essential step in protecting human health. In January 2020, the UN Human Rights Committee issued its first ruling supporting asylum for climate change refugees from Kiribati, forced to move as a result of rising sea levels. This is a promising step, but more needs to be done: more ambitious mitigation targets are needed; the UNFCCC needs to formally recognise the links between climate change and human rights; climate financing mechanisms must be equitable; greater financial and technical support is needed for low income countries; and loss and damage must be addressed to understand the scale of impacts in affected countries.
Co-benefits in the health and climate space are enormous
The scale of actions needed to tackle climate change can seem rather overwhelming. Indeed, a fundamental shift in the way society functions and is powered is needed to mitigate and adapt to climate change. We know how to do this - we just need the will. Furthermore, we need to recognise that many of these actions have huge health co-benefits, which can make plans much for economically efficient and broadly beneficial. Air pollution is a great example of this. Many of the sources of local air pollution are also emitting greenhouse gases (and so contributing to climate change) — such as petrol and diesel cars and coal-fired power plants. By taking petrol and diesel cars off our roads and shutting down coal power plants, not only do we reduce the significant contribution of these greenhouse gas emitters, but we also quickly improve local air quality. This is a big win-win. Ambient air pollution is estimated to cause 4.2 million deaths every year due to stroke, heart disease, lung cancer and chronic respiratory diseases. By identifying and maximising these win-wins and reaping the health and climate co-benefits available, we can make significant and relatively immediate improvements in people’s health and wellbeing.
People inherently care about health
We’ve known for decades that greenhouse gases are causing our planet to warm. I will not go into the unforgivable reasons for this being buried, ignored and denied, but it is important to recognise and then to understand why the health angle could be a game changer. People care about health. They care about their own health, they care about the health of their loved ones, and they generally care about the health of strangers around the world. The same sadly cannot be said for the environment, which has traditionally been the lens through which climate change has been discussed. Furthermore, climate change has historically been presented as a long-term problem - this can make it difficult to engage with it as it seemingly doesn’t affect people’s day to day lives. However, it is becoming increasingly clear to the public that this is not the case. It is also becoming increasingly clear that not only is climate change having impacts now, but that these impacts are affecting people’s health and wellbeing. Talking about climate change through the lens of human health can be a powerfully persuasive tool for action.
There is a long way to go
Sadly, we’re not on the right path. We’re currently heading towards 2.8°C - 3.2°C global temperature rise. A conservative safe limit is 2°C, as set under the Paris Agreement. Incentivising further action is essential and health might just be the angle through which to achieve increased action. It must be understood and recognised that no one is immune to the health impacts of climate change and that health systems are generally not prepared for climate change. Then it can be formally accepted that climate change is a human rights issue. To further incentivise action and make climate action more broadly beneficial for all, health co-benefits must be captured for these are enormous. Beyond this, the fact that people inherently care about health makes for a more compelling and easier “sell”. So the time has come to stop treating issues associated with climate change and those with health as separate entities. They are intricately and inherently linked. Only by mainstreaming health in climate policies, and vice versa, can we truly begin to make tackling the enormousness of the climate crisis a viable possibility.
About Nicola Outsight International
Nicola is an environmental health specialist, with expertise in climate change and health and environmental determinants of health. Previous projects she has worked on include health impacts of climate change, population vulnerability to climate change, health co-benefits of climate mitigation, health adaptation and resilience, ecosystem services and air quality. Nicola works with both health professionals and environmental professionals (across governments, UN agencies, NGOs and academia) to help them better understand the links between climate change, the environment and human health, and also works with professionals to enable them to better account for and address the human health effects of climate change and other environmental changes through targeted policies and plans.
Outsight International is an organisation specialising in providing services to the humanitarian and development sector in an efficient and agile way. We build on the range of expertise offered by our network of Associates in order to deliver quality results adapted to the specific tasks at hand. If you’d like to discuss working Nicola and the Outsight team, please get in touch or follow us on LinkedIn for regular updates.