The World Health Organization has called climate change “the single biggest health threat facing humanity.” The impacts of climate change are jeopardizing progress in development, global health and poverty reduction, and creating new health risks that disproportionately affect the world’s most vulnerable communities.

Climate change is making people more vulnerable to illness, while extreme weather events can destroy critical infrastructure, disrupt supply chains and cut off access to lifesaving health products. While the global health sector is racing to address 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.