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Climate change is impacting human lives and health in a variety of ways. It threatens the essential of good health – clean air, safe drinking water, nutritious food supply and safe shelter – and has the potential to decades of progress in global health. Between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250 000 additional deaths per year from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress alone. The direct damage costs to health are estimated to be between US$ 2–4 billion per year by 2030. Areas with weak health infrastructure – mostly in developing countries – will be the least able to without assistance to prepare and respond.
Greenhouse gas emissions that result from the extraction and burning of fossil fuels are major to both climate change and air pollution. Many policies and individual measures, such as transport, food and energy use choices, have the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and produce major health co-benefits, particularly by abating air pollution. The phase out of polluting energy systems, for example, or the promotion of public transportation and active movement, could both lower carbon emissions and cut the of household and ambient air pollution, which cause 7 million premature deaths per year.