Climate change is creating new health risks that disproportionately affect the world’s most vulnerable communities, while key health products are both carbon-intensive and vulnerable to climate change.
Climate change is creating new health risks that disproportionately affect the world’s most vulnerable communities, while key health products are both carbon-intensive and vulnerable to climate change.
250000
Additional deaths per year expected between 2030 and 2050 due to climate change
4.6 %
Percentage of the world’s carbon emissions produced by the global health sector
70 %
By implementing climate-smart approaches, we could reduce global health emissions for key products by 70% at little or no cost
Climate change is making people more vulnerable to illnesses that are exacerbated by increased pollution, flooding, extreme heat, drought and famine, and increasing the spread of infectious diseases like malaria. Extreme weather events like hurricanes and floods are becoming more frequent, destroying critical infrastructure, disrupting supply chains and cutting off access to lifesaving health products.
While the global health sector tries to outpace the impacts of climate change on people’s health, it also contributes 4.6% of the world’s carbon emissions, mostly through manufacturing, transportation and delivery of health products and services.
If we are to achieve universal health coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals in the face of climate change, the global health sector requires a fundamental rethink about the type of health care that is needed and how it is developed and delivered.
With a focus on mitigation, adaptation, and reducing our own carbon footprint, we are working to lower the impact of the global health sector on climate change. Our strategy is anchored in a simple concept: climate-smart health products. These tools have a strong public health value, are relevant for affected communities, support mitigation and adaptation objectives, and are more sustainable than current products and interventions.
